"PTS to the middle class" - WTF does that mean ?

[Northern Shewolf]

There are two HHs on this board. If your kind words were for me....Happy, thanks!

Mais bien sur! Just for you Hell of a Hoak my $ciloonery Hero!

 

[eldritch cuckoo]

Affinity is pretty much the same in Scnese as elsewhere. It just gets brandished and lobbed around a lot.

Yes, it gets much hyped up... But there IS a difference. I remember a, for me, gross misunderstanding a long time ago where that ended up with somebody thinking that I "like" or "approve" Hubbard - when I just meant "I'm a bit crazy and also I have read up much about psychopathology, and he was batshit crazy, and so I can manage some degree of understanding how his mind worked, how it came that he made up all that." I was refering to implicite knowledge, so to say, to the definition of the english term as I see it (which could be wrong, strictly spoken) ... and not to the scientological Borg-assimilation-thing of "I feel so like agreeing, I duplicate and approve this and see that he makes sense". Nope. In Scientology, where the world theoretically is divided in things (and people) scientological and un-scientological, any kind of "affinitiy" inevitably turns out as agreeing, following, a reason for blind obedience... Ideally, no one has own ideas or feelings, and everybody is just emulating Hubbard and obeying Hubbard, following the plan, and any "whims" that are there... well, let's call it "affinity", instead of "sympathy", because that's more mathematical sounding, and links any vague feeling of sympathy or "wins/gains from the tech" to an obligation to confirm and to agree, to align oneself with all the rest of what the guru said? It is a synonym for "liking" or "sympathy and even "love", it means to be drawn to somebody, admiration maybe, "duplicating cogs", but that was not what I meant, none of these... I was refering to the kind of abstract affinity a good psychologist and/or journalist may develop with serial murders with whom he does (book length) interviews, trying to understand that persons, their motives, what is going on in their minds. I guess I should have used another word.
I was somehow fed up with arguing at that point and so I didn't even explain it, d'oh.

 

[Claire Swazey]

Definition of Affinity acc to LRH & his elves

Here is the CofS/Scn definition of affinity:

affinity: degree of liking or affection or lack of it. Affinity is a tolerance of distance. A great affinity would be a tolerance of or liking of close proximity. A lack of affinity would be an intolerance of or dislike of close proximity. Affinity is one of the components of understanding.

Now, of course the way they implement this- just as they do with anything else- is twisted. But definition wise, it's pretty much the same as in plain ol' non Scn speak.

 

[eldritch cuckoo]

Re: Definition of Affinity acc to LRH & his elves

Here is the CofS/Scn definition of affinity:

affinity: degree of liking or affection or lack of it. Affinity is a tolerance of distance. A great affinity would be a tolerance of or liking of close proximity. A lack of affinity would be an intolerance of or dislike of close proximity. Affinity is one of the components of understanding.

Now, of course the way they implement this- just as they do with anything else- is twisted. But definition wise, it's pretty much the same as in plain ol' non Scn speak.

Unlike with, for example, "ethics", the difference in this case is a somewhat subtler one. The first sentence (purple) makes it clear that I was right with it meaning "sympathy" and such. Aside from that, none of the above makes any sense in "plain old English" - not if applied to psychology. The above relations actually make some sense if applied to physics, magnetism, subatomic forces, active proteins, etc, but applied on human psychology all of this ends up as esoteric hubbardian nonsense, completely made-up, metaphysical concepts. IMO, that's an example of another cranky, twisted move of Hubs. One doesn't take up banalities about the behavior of particles and makes it also a description of psychological realities --- and if one does so nowadays, I'd like to see the tests, the studies, that prove how the suggestion of such a correlation makes sense. I've now looked up several dictionaries/wikis for definations of "affinity" and can't see how most of the above should be considered "normal" or "usual". The first sentence refers to what is to be found in the dictionaries, but the rest, and especially the last sentence (red), definitely is suggestive Hubbard gobbledegook. "Understanding" suddenly depends on (as it is clearly defined as a "component"!) "liking", on "feeling affection" - how twisted is that! So, one doesn't need to think to gain understanding, only to "feel affection"! Typical Hubbard-spew.

 

[Gizmo]

So, if I get this right, one can be PTS to whatever the cult says one is PTS to.

Ain't THAT a handy little thing for them to have to hand to put people back in line !

 

[Caroline]

Really what DOES that mean ?

Here's Hubbard's indoc material from the How To Confront and Shatter Suppression PTS/SP Course:

HUBBARD COMMUNICATIONS OFFICE
Saint Hill Manor, East Grinstead, Sussex

HCO BULLETIN OF 16 APRIL 1982

Remimeo

MORE ON PTS HANDLING

(Taken from an LRH despatch to an executive on 10 Aug. 73.)

You will find that PTS policy calls for DISCONNECT or HANDLE.

PTS is a connection to an SP. That is true. But what may be overlooked is that persons of the middle class (which is a culture, not an income bracket, to which belong all the puritan hypocritical mores of the cop and the get-a-job-be-a-moderate-plugging-success) frown very terribly on anything that the least bit tries to make a better world. The middle class wants the world of a job and order and even hypocrisy and cops because they are AFRAID. They hold to their narrow views because any other views may disturb their twenty-year house mortgage, the store, the job. So when someone decides to make a better world they look on him as a direct menace even though the dull middle-class world is a sort of slavery and suicide. It is the middle class that tries the hardest to keep the down-and-outer out and down, who go along with a cop America and hate support of anything not their class. And nearly every PTS you have will be found one way or another to be PTS to the middle class. As a group, not as an individual, the middle-class-parent world suppresses anything different. So you have PTSes.

I heard that less PTSes were found than people found reading on a problems’ question.*

I began to wonder about it. Then I heard of PTSes being simply transferred or demoted. Now listen, these people are PTS and there must be a total grasp on that tech. It IS a tech.

The person has to either handle or disconnect. If he does so he will begin to get well and cease to have problems. The reasons he cannot handle are because he tries to do it in the heroic fashion that is required in a disconnect. Handling can be very, very gradient. I have seen a case where the person was simply coached to give his parents good roads and good weather and not take up any entheta and have seen the person pull right out of it and get well. It doesn’t have to be a sudden explosive handling! It can be very gentle. All you want is the person at cause and that is attained on a gradient toward the SP.

The bulk of your PTSes may very well be PTS to a class, the middle class, of which their particular SP is simply a member. Few of them realize this or even that the middle class (bourgeoisie) ARE very suppressive to anyone who tries to do something in the world besides support the system. My attitude in this is that both the capitalist and communist are alike old hat and a bore, that they’ve made a ruddy mess of things, exhausted the planet and, with their senseless wars, smashed up mankind.

The whole crux of PTSes is HANDLE or DISCONNECT. [...]

Every one who read on problems* is to some degree PTS. One just didn’t try hard enough to give them the scene. Most of them don’t even know what the letters PTS stand for. So there is an educational step. It does not mean they have been connected to ogres. It means they are suppressed by someone or something OFTEN FAR EXTERIOR TO THEIR PRESENT POSITION OR AREA. So there is an educational step. The tech is in HCO PLs and HCOBs. It is perhaps given more directly herein, as it applies to that exact scene.

So go to it. Really get a grip on it. And handle the hell out of them yourselves.

L. Ron Hubbard
Founder

*In August of 1973 some individuals were checked for PTSness through metered questions regarding problems. For data on the relationship between problems and PTSness, see HCOB 29 Dec. 78R, THE SUPPRESSED PERSON RUNDOWN, A MAGICAL NEW RUNDOWN and HCO PL 18 Dec. 82, ETHICS CONDITIONS: HANG-UP AT DOUBT.

Hubbard, L. R., (1989). How To Confront and Shatter Suppression PTS/SP Course. (2001 ed.). Los Angeles: Bridge Publications, Inc.

 

[Gib]

these three posts explain to me very well. I put them in the correct order, although posted at different times:

http://www.forum.exscn.net/showthre...es-that-mean&p=1000458&viewfull=1#post1000458

http://www.forum.exscn.net/showthre...es-that-mean&p=1000519&viewfull=1#post1000519

http://www.forum.exscn.net/showthre...es-that-mean&p=1000427&viewfull=1#post1000427

Interesting to note is that PTS to the middle class is not part of the PTS A-J sec checks that every new member, before getting admitted to auditing, will be subjected to (a weeding out period)

So, how does one handle or disconnect from (to) the middle class?




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Serve_Man_(The_Twilight_Zone)

"To Serve Man" is episode 89 of the anthology series The Twilight Zone.[SUP][1][/SUP][SUP][2][/SUP][SUP][3][/SUP] It originally aired on March 2, 1962 on CBS.The story is based on the 1950 short story "To Serve Man", written by Damon Knight.[SUP][4][/SUP] The title is a play on the verb serve, which has a dual meaning of "to assist" and "to provide as a meal." The episode is one of the few instances in the series wherein an actor breaks the fourth wall and addresses the viewing audience at the episode's end. The episode, along with the line, "It's a cookbook!," have become elements in pop culture."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dk01eeKMD_I

 

[Hatshepsut]

So, if I get this right, one can be PTS to whatever the cult says one is PTS to.

Ain't THAT a handy little thing for them to have to hand to put people back in line !

Uh...it's beginning to look more Orwellian every day though. The predators are preying upon the mass consciousness and the people too lazy to LOOK. I can see how one could be PTS to the main current which carries things along.


Propaganda quotes: by Edward L. Bernays
https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/481391-propaganda

“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. ...We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. ...In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons...who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.”
― Edward L. Bernays, Propaganda

 

[eldritch cuckoo]

Motivating banality of the day, hopefully not too "twisted": There are no "masses", only "people".

 

[Gib]

Uh...it's beginning to look more Orwellian every day though. The predators are preying upon the mass consciousness and the people too lazy to LOOK. I can see how one could be PTS to the main current which carries things along.


Propaganda quotes: by Edward L. Bernays
https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/481391-propaganda

PTS is just another word, actually meaning whistleblower. Or, hey this shit no work.

 

[Udarnik]

Uh...it's beginning to look more Orwellian every day though. The predators are preying upon the mass consciousness and the people too lazy to LOOK. I can see how one could be PTS to the main current which carries things along.


Propaganda quotes: by Edward L. Bernays
https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/481391-propaganda

Hah, I've been reading "History is a Weapon" lately.

 

[Hatshepsut]

Motivating banality of the day, hopefully not too "twisted": There are no "masses", only "people".

"People" who are sleeping.

Jeepers. Lately we are being told that there is an agenda to uplift the middle class here and the current administration can't understand why anyone would NOT be behind this common purpose. The truth is that once the chess pieces are moved into place there will be no obligation for a person to be permitted to retire at 67 ...and collect, if he already HAS money. Anything in the treasury will be rationed to those who paid in or not, citizens or not, according to humanitarian NEED. WHO wouldn't want that ?

A person can be made to feel small and petty for fighting what is coming by the very persons who run off with the pension funds. The very people who somehow can't produce the gold reserves when they hear the chants of SHOW ME THE MONEY!!

You are not uplifting the middle class when you weigh down those who have been on a constructive bent to raise up those who have been on a destructive one. The sad thing is that energy at different levels exhibits different behavior traits. You cannot break the mold unless it has somewhere to GO and somewhere to RISE to. If it is a characteristic of the personalities in one's immediate environment to STOP all progress to break out and away or upward... the frustration turns into poison. Sabotage and betrayals come from persons who in being thwarted in achieving any goals of their own try to then stop others. Today, the painful drama often starts at birth with birth parents having zero inclination to GIVE of themselves or plan ahead so that their progeny can Have SOMETHING....ANYTHING. It is just not their job to do it. The built up frustration from no one caring about anyone else aspiring to really achieve anything has morphed into something quite lethal.

 

[eldritch cuckoo]

PTS is just another word, actually meaning whistleblower. Or, hey this shit no work.

If this shit no work, man, smoke more shit, man! No problum, no problum... Dat shit is, like, growin' in da woods...

:smoking:

 

[Helena Handbasket]

So, how does one handle or disconnect from (to) the middle class?

Very easy. Give all your money to the cult, refinance your house and give them that money, too, then quit your job and go to work for them full-time. I guarantee you'll be disconnected from the middle class in short order.

Helena

 

[Claire Swazey]

Re: Definition of Affinity acc to LRH & his elves

Unlike with, for example, "ethics", the difference in this case is a somewhat subtler one. The first sentence (purple) makes it clear that I was right with it meaning "sympathy" and such. Aside from that, none of the above makes any sense in "plain old English" - not if applied to psychology. The above relations actually make some sense if applied to physics, magnetism, subatomic forces, active proteins, etc, but applied on human psychology all of this ends up as esoteric hubbardian nonsense, completely made-up, metaphysical concepts. IMO, that's an example of another cranky, twisted move of Hubs. One doesn't take up banalities about the behavior of particles and makes it also a description of psychological realities --- and if one does so nowadays, I'd like to see the tests, the studies, that prove how the suggestion of such a correlation makes sense. I've now looked up several dictionaries/wikis for definations of "affinity" and can't see how most of the above should be considered "normal" or "usual". The first sentence refers to what is to be found in the dictionaries, but the rest, and especially the last sentence (red), definitely is suggestive Hubbard gobbledegook. "Understanding" suddenly depends on (as it is clearly defined as a "component"!) "liking", on "feeling affection" - how twisted is that! So, one doesn't need to think to gain understanding, only to "feel affection"! Typical Hubbard-spew.

I'd never equate any definition of Affinity to Sympathy.

In many ways, the Scn definition closely parallels the non Scn. There is an additional element and that may be what you meant- alchemy. He may've also been inculcating his interests in Magick in this.

 

[La La Lou Lou]

All groups demand compromise from their members. All groups are like the middle class, social groups can be claustrophobic, oppressive, they show their disdain towards anyone who doesn't fit in. This is true for alcoholics, it's true for members of this board, it's true for working class pub crawlers if one of them goes for a meal with their wife when they should be staring at the bottom of a glass with their 'mates'.

So yes some people worry too much about what other people think, some groups demand too much from their members. The 1950s middle class middle America was an uncomfortable place to be for anyone who didn't want to play their game by the letter. People can be badly effected by the middle class and they can be badly effected by the church of scn too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9EHRObUQqY

However according to Hubbard we all need to belong to a group. His idea was that we would all give up our clubs, friends, relations, facebook friends, people on our Christmas card lists and get oppressed and controlled by him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozSNCqGP3yU

 

[Claire Swazey]

Societal pressures can be invasive, yes. But one thing... CofS is a closed group. The middle class is a very large segment of society. One pays no dues, one can go to another neighborhood- it's a bit easier to duck and weave, so to speak.

 

[Terril park]

Interesting to note is that PTS to the middle class is not part of the PTS A-J sec checks that every new member, before getting admitted to auditing, will be subjected to (a weeding out period)

So, how does one handle or disconnect from (to) the middle class?

Nor is it type 1-3 pts. Also the term is a generality. Its just that extra tool
to extract money.

Also they wouldn't want to throw them out. Then
they wouldn't get any money from them.

 

[Commander Birdsong]

....

The concept of "PTS to the middle class" is a tour de force of Orwellian rhetorical treachery as well as blatant bait & switch.

It is really nothing more than Hubbard "attacking" his perceived enemies. If, for example, Hubbard was worried that the mental health care industry might discredit his charlatanism or (far worse) siphon off some money by treating his cult's customers, then an attack is launched against ALL of psychiatry. Similarly, if a Scientologist has money set aside to buy a house, pay for their children's college education or a retirement account, Hubbard wanted all that money NOW!

Hubbard had to literally invent an enemy to attack to distract Scientologists while he is pick-pocketing them.

Keep in mind that the three examples (buying home, paying for kid's education and retirement account) is EXACTLY what Hubbard says to do in his finance HCOPLs, to wit:

* Setting up a "building fund" = the equivalent of buying a house.

* Paying weekly into a "reserve account" = planning for emergencies and future needs by setting up a retirement fund for oneself.​

* Using money for one of the "three valid forms of processing" (auditing, education, travel) = establishing a college (education) fund for one's kids.​

The real story of Scientology is that it's 99% Bait-n-Switch. When you first do a "free personality test" and 25 dollar com Scientology assures you that they are only there to help you achieve your wonderful goals, whatever they might be (to be a movie star, wealthy businessman, live in a mansion, travel the world, et al...). However the more you do Scientology, the more the church tightens its boa constrictor grip around your activities, your mind and your goals. The church will think nothing (once you are "aboard") to trash your wonderful goals and harshly tell you that you are PTS to the middle class to want to achieve any of those goals they pretended to so love and support when you first walked into an org.

By issuing this absurd "tech" Hubbard is simply giving Org staff members yet another tool to control Scientology slave's thoughts and actions.

Final note. When Hubbard/Miscavige treated themselves to lavish real estate and hundreds of millions in "reserves" for their own use in maintaining rock-star life styles, no Scientologists dares mention the "PTS to the middle class" tech. That tech is unselfishly reserved for the rest of the Scientologists.

one can look it that way

or...

one can see the image of proper religious exhortation as often found in our music when we were young

e.g.

"another pleasant valley sunday-ay-ay; charcoal burning everywhere
rows of houses that are all the same and no one seems to care..."

"...there's mr green, he's so serene, he has TV in every room..."

 

[Commander Birdsong]

Oh man, never liked that one even when I was in. It's pretty nonsensical.

I think it truly is a sour grapes type thing. Like, "you're spending this money on yourself and on material objects rather than give it to us." I mean, I guess some of it could be a "your salvation is at stake" type thing, but-

Cult leaders or even mainstream clergy who preach eschewing material possessions in favor of devotion to spirituality but who themselves live opulently can't be trusted.

I remember having this new dress I liked and the missionholder where I was staff chided me for having attention on adorning the body. Well, yeah, she lived cheaply but at the same time lived in a big 10 room gorgeous home, had autos, private school education, all from her dad. Never ever worked a day in her life, plus we cleaned her place for her.

This is the kind of hypocrisy that can be expected from them.

Also, when one is first regged, one's told life is to be made better-not that ppl get talked into quitting good jobs, selling homes, signing awful staff contracts.

The hcob smacks of Bolshevik rhetoric. Ironic in a man who described all political systems as old hat and a bore.

Basically, they just want all your money and time. Trying to lead a comfortable lifestyle is antithetical to that.

yes...

one notes the hypocrisy in CoS

consider my above post; can you not see the higher range a well as the lower?