Like the triangle of human relationships, the human being himself consists of three sides: body, mind, and a third which we may call the spirit, but which in Scientology is called the thetan. These sides are not different or separate, any more than the three sides of a geometrical triangle are separate, being but three faces of the same object.
As a rule, people have accepted as fact that the human is a composite of mind and body, but as we saw in the beginning of this book, Hubbard had discarded this idea of mind and body, showing that the two are really one, although having separate functions at times. And then, in 1951, he first postulated, and then demonstrated, that there is something more than just these. Independently of Hubbard's work, it is scientifically demonstrable that the mind is not the real "I" and that the real "I" is something else: the spirit, or thetan.
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Some years ago, at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, an experiment was performed that had the most far-reaching implications. A young woman underwent minor brain surgery, consisting of trepanning, cutting open the skull, under a local anesthetic, leaving her in full control of her own mind. The necessary part of the operation was quickly completed, and since the young woman was in no discomfort, the surgeons asked her permission to make certain experiments which would not harm her, but might help them in understanding the brain and its function. She agreed, and using an extremely low-powered electric probe, they began touching different parts of her exposed brain. The stimulus of the probe at first caused her to see things out of her past, such as a lake and other scenes. These resulted from activating portions of her standard memory banks. Then another part of her brain was touched, and her arm suddenly rose up until it stood out straight from her shoulder. At this, she said, "Oooh, I didn't mean to do that." Now this was a most significant statement. Her brain had been stimulated and an action had resulted, but some "I" within her "didn't mean to do that." There could hardly be more complete proof of the fact that the mind is not the "I."
Then what can the "I" be? Religious thinkers of the ages have known instinctively that the mind and the "I" are not the same, and they have called it by various names, "spirit" being one of them. However, for the purposes of Scientology, spirit is a poor term because of the many old meanings and connotations tied up in it,
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and so the word "thetan" was chosen, based on the Greek letter theta, an ancient symbol for the spirit. The thetan controls the mind that controls the body.
Hubbard has shown through experiments in Scientology processing that the thetan may be separated from the mind and body without causing death or harm. It may even be separated from what the spiritualists call the "astral body." Until now, man has considered himself as a mind and a body, the reason being that he has not previously possessed the technology for demonstrating the reality of the thetan. As Hubbard says, this belief in the limitation of man to existence as mind and body is the basis for the cult of Communism, which teaches that man is a sort of thought-producing, self-operating mechanism, confined to one life and void of any significance other than that which he can produce with his brain and hands.
The thetan, according to Scientology, has no mass, no wavelength, no energy, no time, and no location except as a construct. It is, therefore, not an object, but the creator of objects; it is not an effect, but the creator of effects. It may be found - but only in the sense of a construct - in one of four locations: separate from a body, or even the universe; near a body and controlling it; within a body; or forcibly separated from a body and unable to come near to it. This last is the state we call "death." The thetan does not die, in fact it cannot die, but it does simulate death by forgetting what has passed and returns to find a new body for its next "life." This comes very close to the Hindu and Buddhist doctrine of reincarnation, a belief held by a majority of the inhabit-
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ants of this planet. Scientology claims to have demonstrated not only that this is factual, but that anxieties about sex and procreation are due to the desire of the thetan to make sure that there will be bodies to inhabit in the future. The idea of such return must give us pause for thought, when we realize that we are creating today the society we will have to live in tomorrow.
The optimal condition for a person is that which obtains when the thetan is in the second state, that of being near a body and in control of it, and an aim of Scientology processing is to bring about that state in a preclear by a method called "exteriorizing." We shall see how this condition comes about in the chapter on "processing."
Let us now consider the second leg of the human triangle, the mind. As was seen in our study of Dianetics, the mind is also three-sided, consisting of the analytical mind, the reactive mind, and the somatic mind. The analytical mind is an optimal computer when not occluded by the content of the reactive mind. It is also the system for control and communication used by the thetan in dealing with the body and environment. As a communication system, the analytical mind gathers percepts from the outer universe and passes them on to the thetan to be used as a basis for its control. The thetan can draw upon the standard memory banks, and, being near to omniscience, it can also create concepts concerning the past and the future without having to rely on present percepts.
The analytical mind draws upon its memory banks, combining these data with perceptions of the present
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and predictions of the future in arriving at conclusions. The thetan acts, using these computations in reaching decisions.
The reactive mind, which was the principal concern in our study of Dianetics, has that characteristic that Marxist psychology mistakenly taught as being true of the whole mind, a stimulus-response mechanism. Once it has been packed with a full complement of engrams, it responds in an emergency, real or fancied, without analytical computation, and its responses are almost always hazardous to the well-being of the person, if not downright destructive.
The somatic mind is on an even lower level than the reactive mind, since it does not think at all. It merely acts in response to commands given to it by the thetan, the analytical mind, and the reactive mind. Any of these can directly affect it and, through it, the nerves, muscles, and glands of the body. When the reactive mind issues one of its aberrant commands to the somatic mind, the result will usually be some form of psychosomatic illness.
The body is the remaining leg of the human triangle. Its study comes under the heading of physiology and anatomy. It is a vehicle for the thetan, and as a vehicle, it is best known and understood by those mechanics who specialize in its care, the students of medicine. However, while doctors have accomplished much, the complete treatment of bodily ills should include some treatment for the mind, and this is beyond modern medical practice. We might sum it up in this somewhat oversimplified fashion: the body itself and its treatment
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lie in the domain of medicine; the mind itself and its treatment are in the realm of Dianetics; and the care and feeding of the thetan is a task for Scientology.
Of these three, the thetan is that part which can with truth be called the real person. Life exists in the thetan even without the mind or body, but there is no life in mind or body without the thetan. Thus, the thetan is the real individual, the real "I," and it may be separated from the mind and body without causing the death of either, providing it remains in control.
In an earlier chapter, mention was made of the essence of control: start, change, and stop. If one is not master of all three, he does not have control. You cannot control an automobile if you cannot start it, change its course, or bring it to a stop. Failure of a driver to be able to properly change the course of his car or to bring it to a stop will lead to the possibility of an accident of the kind entered on the police blotter as "out of control." You cannot control yourself or your environment without the ability to start, change, and stop. An apathetic person cannot start anything; a neurotic person, believing he is enslaved by a habit, cannot change; a compulsively aberrant person cannot stop. A person whose mind is free likes to start (create) things; a discontented person wants to make changes; a fearful person wants to stop everything.
Human actions are originated by the thetan, but once begun, influences may be brought to bear from the outside which will result in its inability to start, change, or stop. This loss of control will be passed on to the mind, and it, too, will become unable to start, change,
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or stop. This, in turn, will be passed along to the body and it will suffer a similar loss of control.
While the body may become incapacitated by some act in the environment, as may the mind, particularly the reactive mind, the thetan is not subject to such action. Nothing can act upon the thetan to change it, since its function is two-fold only: to witness the effects of the environment on the mind and body, and to originate thoughts and actions. But the thetan can incapacitate itself by becoming insufficiently or falsely pan-determined, and this can lead to problems. Only these problems are not real problems for the thetan, being only what it thinks they are. To paraphrase the Book of Proverbs: "As the thetan thinketh in its heart, so is it."
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