Reference: The Book of Scientology
Everyone-Nobody
Please see the original section at the link above.
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Summary
A person is basically “an awareness without fixation.” There is his own identity that he is controlling. There are other identities around him that he is not controlling, but he is in communication with them.
Hubbard says, “At the top of the scale, while still retaining his own identity, he can be anyone’s identity.”
When a person is at the top of the tone scale, he is not fixated either on his identity or on the identities of others. There is just one continuous, consistent and harmonious awareness that is totally free. It may identify in passing with different postulates, and that produces different identities. But that identification is not permanent, and the awareness can just as easily unidentify itself. There are no distinct permanent identities, such as, thetans as assumed in Scientology.
Hubbard says, “At the bottom end of the scale, the preclear is making the mistake of considering the “somebodies” around him as MEST.”
The identifications start to become more enduring as the tone scale is descended. This may be seen as increasing fixation. When the person is at the bottom of the tone scale, he is heavily fixated on an identity and believes that identity to be permanent; for example, the identity as a thetan. The awareness is seen as distributed among different identities. Identities has now become very prominent, discrete.and separately controlled. The person believes others around him to be fixated on their identities just like he is. He gets very confused if another identity suddenly changes radically in its characteristics.
Hubbard says, “When an individual is low on the tone-scale, he easily does a life continuum for others.” Hubbard defines life continuum as “somebody fails, departs or dies and the individual then takes on the burden of this person’s habits, goals, fears, and idiosyncrasies.”
Low on the tone-scale, a person is fixated on an identity, which he calls “I”. In this condition he unknowingly assumes the characteristics of another identity that he has become attached to, especially when the other identity has departed. This is also called being in the valence of another. It is basically a fixation. The greater is the fixation, the lesser is the freedom.
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FINAL COMMENTS
Hubbard says that being everybody can be conceived at both ends of the tone-scale. But it basically boils down to assuming certain characteristics—lightly or heavily—that are also manifested elsewhere. The key aberration is fixation and it has numerous manifestations. Hubbard is trying to explain this fixation in terms of theta and MEST.
A person high on the tone scale is aware of the similarities and differences between him and others around him. He can sense that their thoughts, emotions and feelings are very much like his own in their basic characteristics. He finds that he is like everyone as he understands the desires and pains of others.
A person low on the tone scale is mostly unaware, and has little power of choice. He mostly reacts like those his attention is unconsciously fixated on. He is nobody.
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