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Reference: A Critique of Scientology Philosophy

The human identity has both physical and metaphysical aspects. Based on corollaries 12 and 13 (Ref: The Kinetic Condition) we may say the following.

1. The human identity consists of a physical “body” and a metaphysical “viewpoint”.

2. The body consists of a structure formed out of organic material that exists within an electromagnetic field.

3. The viewpoint consists of a structure formed out of DNA programming that exists within a field of consciousness.

4. The body exists in space.  The viewpoint exists in awareness.

From Scientology 8-8008, section THE BEINGNESS OF MAN:

“The beingness of Man, by which is meant Homo sapiens, derives its impulse toward thought and action from theta and takes its material form in mest. Man, Homo sapiens, is a composite being of four distinct and divisible actualities: these parts are termed the thetan, the memory banks, the genetic entity and the body. The thetan… derives its impulse from the potential of theta itself and has certain definite goals and behaviour characteristics of its own.”

Hubbard uses the terms “theta” and “mest” broadly for metaphysical and physical aspects of reality respectively. Here thetan, memory bank and genetic entity denote the spiritual aspect of human identity. The body obviously denotes the physical aspect.

In the current model, the “potential of theta” is best described as desire; and “thetan” is simply the concept of individuality that is represented by the viewpoint, as described above.

Thetan is the individual identity of Man. The body is the physical aspect of that identity. The viewpoint is the metaphysical aspect of identity. The memory banks and genetic entity are aspects of the viewpoint. 

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From Scientology 8-8008, section THE BEINGNESS OF MAN:

“The standard memory banks and the reactive memory banks compose the memory banks of Homo sapiens… The standard banks can be said to contain data of which Man is easily and analytically aware and the reactive banks are those which contain stimulus-response… The content of the reactive banks was received during moments of lessened awareness such as the unconsciousness of early life in times of weariness, severe pain or heavy emotional stress, such data operating automatically thereafter to command the person without his consent. The standard memory banks are those in which experience is stored for use in the estimation of the effort necessary for survival and are concerned with analytical thought.”

In the current model, “memory banks” are part of the field of consciousness. As a person observes his environment, all his perceptions are assimilated as experience in the field of consciousness. Memory is constructed from this experience as and when required.

“Standard banks” are those areas of the field of experience where the perceptions are well assimilated. When perceptions are not assimilated they retain their literal form as “reactive banks”.

Perceptions are not assimilated when they are distorted due to the overload of  sensory organs. This overload occurs under conditions of severe pain or heavy emotional stress, but there are other means, such as chemical and electrical, that may also overload the sensory organs.

The viewpoint is flawed, and so is the body, to the degree perceptions of reality have not been well assimilated into consciousness.

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From Scientology 8-8008, section THE BEINGNESS OF MAN:

“The genetic entity is that beingness not dissimilar to the thetan which has carried forward and developed the body from its earliest moments along the evolutionary line on earth and which through experience, necessity and natural selection, has employed the counter-efforts of the environment to fashion an organism of the type best fitted for survival, limited only by the abilities of the genetic entity. The goal of the genetic entity is survival on a much grosser plane of materiality.

“The body itself is a carbon-oxygen engine which runs at a temperature of 98.6°F on low combustion fuel, generally derived from other life forms. The body is directly monitored by the genetic entity in activities such as respiration, heart-beat and endocrine secretions; but these activities may be modified by the thetan.”

Scientology description of the body is pretty good. The physical concept of body extends into metaphysics as “genetic entity”. The “genetic entity” is essentially the DNA programming of the person.

Thus, at the core of the viewpoint lies the genetic entity as the core programming. This programming extends outwards as the memory banks in consciousness.

The genetic entity forms the core of the thetan, which is not so viewed in Scientology.

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It is from out-of-body experience (OBE) that Scientology derives its idea of thetan. In OBE, a person feels that he is outside the body. He can view his own body from a distance. He can perceive the environment also from that vantage point. This experience is accompanied by a feeling of peace and painlessness.

From Scientology Technical Dictionary:

“EXTERIORIZATION, 1 . the state of the thetan, the individual himself, being outside his body. When this is done, the person achieves a certainty that he is himself and not his body. (PXL Gloss) 2 . the phenomenon of being in a position in space dependent on only one’s consideration, able to view from that space, bodies and the room, as it is. (PAB 125) 3 . the act of moving out of the body with or without full perception. (HCOB 22 Oct 71)”

Scientology refers to OBE as “exteriorization”. Objectively, a person is the spiritual viewpoint as well as the physical body. The “exteriorized” viewpoint cannot exist without the body. The two remain connected as part of the same identity. It is more likely that the viewpoint is expanding beyond the body rather than that a thetan is leaving the body.

From Scientology Technical Dictionary:

“VIEWPOINT, 1. a point of awareness from which one can perceive. (PAB 2) 2 . that thing which an individual puts out remotely, to look through. A system of remote lookingness— we’ll call it just remote viewpoint. That’s a specialized kind of viewpoint. And the place from which the individual is himself looking, we’ll call flatly a viewpoint. (2ACC 17A, 5312CM07)”

The error here is to think of viewpoint as a location in space. The viewpoint is actually “the frame of reference” that a person is using to observe. Most people look at the world from the frame of reference of their body. When this frame of reference happens to become larger than the body, the person experiences the dramatic phenomenon of OBE or exteriorization.

Exteriorization is due to expansion of the person’s viewpoint (frame of reference) and not because some thetan has detached itself from the body.

We can get a better idea of this spatial aspect of viewpoint from the following example.

Let’s look at an atom. When the viewpoint is limited to the nucleus we are subjectively aware of the nucleus, but not much else. When that viewpoint expands to the first electronic shell of the atom we can objectively see the nucleus. When that viewpoint expands beyond the electronic region, we can objectively see the whole atom – a nucleus surrounded by electronic shells. If we expand that viewpoint beyond the electromagnetic field, we can objectively see atoms as “whirlpools” in the electromagnetic field.

Human viewpoint has many dimensions. Spatial dimension is just one aspect of it. But this one aspect can easily expand beyond earth. The resulting view is essentially visualization but it can be a good approximation of reality, and very vivid as in case of OBE.

Most people are interiorized into their identity. When a person’s viewpoint expands beyond his physical body and subjective self, he obtains a great sense of freedom.

But when a person’s viewpoint remains interiorized into his physical identity, it represents a level of fixation deeper than fixed attention. Such deeper fixation is referred to as a filter (See: The Scientific View).

The interiorization of viewpoint is visible in filters, such as, biases, prejudices, assumptions, fixed ideas, blind faith, etc.

It is the freeing of the fixed idea, “I am just this body” that brings about the out-of-body experience. To fully understand one’s identity, one needs to expand out of the subjectivity of what one is. Exteriorization from other filters leads to greater objectivity of viewpoint and understanding of one’s true identity..

A person is as sane as he can expand his viewpoint.

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Reference: Scientology Fundamentals

Please see The Definition of THETAN

From Scientology 8-8008, section THE BEINGNESS OF MAN:

“The personality and beingness which actually is the individual and is aware of being aware and is ordinarily and normally the “person” and who the individual thinks he is, is the thetan; and this awareness can continue, is clarified and is not interrupted by a detachment from the body which is accomplished by standard processing.”

In an out-of-body experience (OBE), a person feels that he is outside the body. He can view his own body from a distance. He can perceive the environment also from that vantage point. Scientology interprets this phenomenon to assert that the person has moved out of the body. This person is the “thetan”, which can exist all by itself without the physical body.

In reality the viewpoint has shifted from the frame of reference of the body to a frame of reference that surrounds the body. The metaphysical viewpoint has not separated itself from the physical body. This would be inconsistent.

Most people look at the world from the frame of reference of their body all the time. When, all of a sudden, this frame of reference happens to shift from body to the environment, the person experiences the dramatic phenomenon of OBE.

In the out-of-body phenomena the viewpoint shifts from the frame of reference of the body to a frame of reference that surrounds the body.

Scientology Filter: It is an arbitrary assumption in Scientology that the spiritual beingness of a person can be separated literally from the physical beingness.

Human viewpoint has many dimensions. Spatial view is just one aspect of it. We can get a better idea of this aspect from the following example.

Let’s look at an atom. When the viewpoint is limited to the nucleus we are subjectively aware of the nucleus, but not much else. When that viewpoint expands to the first electronic shell of the atom we can objectively see the nucleus. When that viewpoint expands beyond the electronic region, we can objectively see the whole atom – a nucleus surrounded by electronic shells. If we expand that viewpoint beyond the electromagnetic field, we can objectively see atoms as “whirlpools” in the electromagnetic field.

The spatial aspect of human viewpoint can easily expand beyond earth. What one sees is a good approximation of reality. It is very vivid in case of OBE.

The Scientology thetan is simply the spatial aspect of the human viewpoint.

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