A person applying PTS Technology to his own life or to another who is Roller Coastering can encounter a unique circumstance. The PTS person correctly carries out the standard action to handle a person who is antagonistic to him or his activities, yet the antagonistic source continues to remain antipathetic to the PTS person and/or his activities. In this case, it may require the alternate step to handle, which is disconnect.
The concept of disconnection relates to the right to communicate.
Perhaps the most fundamental right of any being is the right to communicate. Without this freedom, other rights deteriorate.
Communication, however, is a two-way flow. If one has the right to communicate, then one must also have the right to not receive communication from another. It is this latter concept of the right to not receive communication that gives us our right to privacy.
These rights are so basic that governments have written them into laws—
However, groups have always regulated these rights to one degree or another. For with the freedom to communicate come certain agreements and responsibilities.
An example of this is a marriage: In a monogamous society, the agreement is that one will be married to only one person at one time. That agreement extends to having sexual relations with one’s spouse and no one else. Thus, should wife Shirley establish this type of relationship with someone other than her husband Pete, it is a violation of the agreement and resolutions of the marriage. Pete has the right to insist that either this communication cease or that the marriage will cease.
Handle or Disconnect
In this course you have seen the phrase “handle or disconnect.” It means simply that.
The term handle most commonly means, when used in relation to PTS Technology, to smooth out a situation with another person by applying the technology of communication.
The term disconnection is defined as a self-determined decision made by an individual that he is not going to be connected to another. It is a severing of a communication line (the route along which a communication travels from one person to another).
The basic principle of “handle or disconnect” exists in any group.
It is much like trying to deal with a criminal. If he will not handle, the society resorts to the only other solution: It “disconnects” the criminal from the society. In other words, they remove the guy from society and put him in a prison because he won’t handle his problem or otherwise cease to commit criminal acts against others.
It’s the same sort of situation that husband Pete is faced with as mentioned in the first part of this section. The optimum solution is to handle the situation with wife Shirley and her violations of their group (marriage) agreements. But if Pete cannot handle the situation, he is left with no other choice but to disconnect (sever the marriage
A person can become PTS by reason of being connected to someone that is antagonistic to him. In order to resolve the PTS condition, he either handles the other person’s antagonism (as covered in the materials in this course) or, as a last resort when all attempts to handle have failed, he disconnects from the person. He is simply exercising his right to communicate or not to communicate with a particular person.
By applying the technology of “handle or disconnect” the person is, in actual fact, doing nothing different than any society or group or marriage down through thousands of years.
The Right to Disconnect
Earlier, the use of disconnection in Scientology had been cancelled. It had been abused by a few individuals who’d failed to handle situations which could have been handled and who lazily or senselessly disconnected, thereby creating situations even worse than the original because it was the wrong action.
Secondly, there were those who could survive only by living on Scientology’s lines—they wanted to continue to be connected to Scientologists. Thus they screamed
This put Scientologists at a disadvantage.
We cannot afford to deny Scientologists that basic freedom that is granted to everyone else: The right to choose whom one wishes to communicate with or not communicate with. It’s bad enough that there are governments trying, through the use of force, to prevent people from disconnecting from them.
The bare fact is that disconnection is a vital tool in handling PTSness and can be very effective when used correctly.
Therefore, the tool of disconnection was restored to use, in the hands of those persons thoroughly and standardly trained in the technology of handling Suppressives and Potential Trouble Sources.
Handling Antagonistic Sources
In the great majority of cases, where a person has some family member or close associate who appears antagonistic to him, it is not really a matter of the antagonistic source wanting the PTS to not get better. It can more commonly be a lack of correct information about what the PTS person is doing that causes the problem or upset. In such a case, simply having the PTS disconnect would not help matters and would actually show an inability on the part of the PTS to confront the situation. It is quite common that the PTS has a low confront (ability to face without flinching or avoiding) on the person and situation. This isn’t hard to understand when one looks at these facts:
a. To be PTS in the first place, the PTS must have committed harmful, contra-survival acts against the antagonistic source; and
b. When one has committed such acts, his
When an individual using the data in this course to assist another finds that a person is PTS to a family member, he does not recommend that the person disconnect from the antagonistic source. The advice to the PTS person is to handle.
The handling for such a situation is to educate the PTS person in the technology of PTSness and suppression, and then skillfully and firmly guide the PTS through the steps needed to restore good communication with the antagonistic source. For example, where the PTS person is a Scientologist, these actions eventually dissolve the situation by bringing about an understanding on the part of the antagonistic source as to what Scientology is and why the PTS person is interested and involved in it.
When Disconnection Is Used
One can encounter a situation where someone is factually connected to a Suppressive Person, in present time. This is a person whose normal operating basis is one of making others smaller, less able, less powerful. He does not want anyone to get better, at all.
In truth, an SP is absolutely, completely terrified of anyone becoming more powerful.
In such an instance the PTS isn’t going to get anywhere trying to “handle” the person. The answer is to sever the connection.
How a
Example: The person lives next door to, say, a psychiatric clinic and feels PTS due to this environment. The remedy is simple—the person can move to another apartment in another location. He need not write any sort of “disconnection letter” to the psychiatric clinic. He simply changes his environment—which is, in effect, a disconnection from the suppressive environment.
Example: One discovers that an employee at his place of business is an SP—he steals money, drives away customers, wipes out other employees and will not correct no matter what you do. The handling is very simple—the PTS fires him and that’s the end of it right there!
The individual’s right to communicate (or not) with someone is an inherent freedom. Exercising this right and disconnecting from a Suppressive Person does not under any circumstances justify any violations of the laws of the land.
The technology of disconnection is essential in the handling of PTSes. It can and has saved lives and untold trouble and upset. It must be preserved and used correctly.
used to introduce something that gives evidence of a fact or demonstrates a statement just made.
the route along which a communication travels from one person to another.
to an unusual or excessive level or degree. Alludes to something being so loud that it can be heard in a place as far away as heaven.
to face without flinching or avoiding. The ability to confront is actually the ability to be there comfortably and perceive.