SCpoloRicker
01-18-2007, 06:37 PM
No way I can be brief, but I can be longwinded and provide an extremely condensed summary of some of the most important basic ideas, at least as I see it.
1. The metaphysical and material/physical realms are utterly separate in nature, with the material realm subject to the metaphysical for some purposes but the metaphysical in no way controlled by the material.
2. The main occupants of the metaphysical realm are referred to as "thetans" merely to give them a name which has no historical baggage to it whatsoever.
(A) Higher orders of sentient being than the ordinary thetan, such as God, gods, or angels, are assumed possible or probable but never specifically addressed in Scientology - it's a religion leaving one free to pursue one's own theology.
(B) "Thetan" does not refer to ancient space aliens, as some half-informed tittering critics or on-lookers like to think, but is simply the name for every sentient entity that makes up a conventional person. One never "has" a thetan, one is a thetan. Most, but not all thetans, do in fact interact with the material realm on an ongoing seemingly perpetual basis, most but not all going so far as to possess a material body, usually of animal construction, of which the human body is the most popular to own and pretend to "be" on this particular planet. A few who are in a state where they aren't pretending to be in a body might like to pretend they are a higher order of being and play silly little games with the rest of us.
(C) A special branch of thetans, so called "body thetans" (a completely secret and hidden doctrine in Scientology that one is exposed to only after jumping through a long series of preliminary hoops), are merely thetans who are
(1) too terrified of being identified as someone in a body and thus susceptible to being targeted, but also are
(2) too terrified of being lonely and out of touch with other intelligence,
that they can't resist clinging onto some body inhabited by someone much more capable and unafraid compared to themselves. This is much like a toddler clinging on to a mother's skirt while following her around and hoping to be protected, able to hid from threats, and not feel alone and in terror.
Personally I think "body thetans" are a full-of-shiat theory, but have to accept that if thetans exist this special impaired type of thetan might exist too, at least in some instances. I think Hubbard came up with this idea largely to account for why he looked in such rotten shape one day when he ought to be very healthy if he was such a potent juju weilding type person, so full of magic mojo after working so intimately with the deeper secrets of existence for so many years. He had previously acknowledged some rare cases in which more than one thetan might be holding onto and attempting to be in possession of a meat body (akin to demonic possession), but suggested such rarities were not a big issue, ordinary exorcism or other ritual could cope with it as it had in the past, and no special Scientology process would really be needed other than assessing why two intelligent people are in a fight as if in normal life in separate bodies, and the whole "body thetan" idea was pretty much a nonsequiter to his previous positions. His attribution of somatic pains and ills to some puny little being too terrified of being alone and yet too terrified of being spotted and thus subject to attack, as cause of unwanted events in a body inhabited by a much stronger being and to all other respects apparently under the stronger beings complete control, just doesn't add up to me.
3. Thetans participate in the material realm only through a complex set of self-deceptions and self-imposed limitations, one of the most crucial of which is a complexly nested scheme that involves purposely perceiving only an illusory version of both the material and metaphysical "theta" realm rather than the real version of either, in order to maintain participation in the material realm despite belonging entirely to a metaphysical "theta" realm and the two realms being essentially unrelated.
It is essential, also, that an illusory "self" be self-perceived if one is to guard the persistence of the dual (or more) illusions masking both the material and theta realities. It is theorized that mere accurate self-perception may be enough in some cases to start unraveling the other illusions that one is persistently creating to mask the material and theta realities. Some people hold the idea that most religions teach about higher orders of being, such as God, gods, or angels, largely as a method of maintaining an illusory self conception, i.e. that one continues to believe in a false self-conception by means of first defining a falsely perceived order of beings that one is defined in relation to and then using that to falsely perceive one's own nature. This doesn't mean there is no such order of higher beings, merely that one uses a masking illusion about them to keep their reality from oneself, this in turn to keep intact one's masking illusion about oneself, which is all part and parcel of one's masking illusions about - well everything in short.
People who shout at deeply learned Scientologists that they are nuts and out of touch with reality probably prompt the Scientologist to think "My that person is passionate about his favorite masking illusion." Deeply learned Scientologists tend to assume most of what everyday humans perceive is merely a deliberately distorted illusory version of the same thing, and of illusory nature in such a way as best suits that person without being too out of step in the larger game being played - i.e. partially idiosyncratic though mostly socially constructed and agreed upon. On occasion some specific person might not be illusorily obscuring some aspect of reality, and if you want accurate knowledge about reality for some special purpose you can consult that person's ideas on the subject - such as in the way physicist accurately describe matter while still maintaining an illusory perception of everything else, same as the rest of humanity in the main. Deeply learned Scientologists tend to find "brainwashing" allegations hilarious as hell, because unbrainwashing is what they are about in their estimate, and it is funny to hear people so vehemently insist that the common illusion be respected at all times upon pain of having insinuations about one spoken. Deeply learned Scientologists find the sheeple around them funny as hell except for the fact that they are so persistently annoying towards anyone not pretending to be a sheeple as the script calls for.
4. Got a problem perceiving accurately either the real physical or metaphysical realms? (Which is the same as saying "Got a problem?" in Scientology.) "Scientology can help you with that", (the standard come-on for anything you say that ails you) which is in reality the ultimate solution Scientology has for everything: accurate perception of reality in itself is enough to utterly resolve any problem and alter any condition. "Greater awareness" is essentially the one panacea in Scientology, though it might have to be achieved in various baby steps and peculiar methods. Because of the deliberateness of forgetting the theta realm, and the complexity with which a scheme of dual illusions (or greater in number if one is employing extensively nested illusions to mask both the material and theta realms) is perpetuated to maintain one's role in the material game, it might be that ONLY very peculiar sounding methods are able to restore awareness in some of its aspects.
5. Among its helpful exercises are some intended to let you glimpse, whether just briefly or permanently, the actual operation of the theta realm. One of the most powerful of these experiences is called "exteriorization", or leaving the body.
It actually involves no leaving at all, just experiencing a reality in which you don't have a location in space except as an illusion, because a location in space is a purely physical thing and you aren't physical at all, only your body is.
It is possible, but not guaranteed, that in experiencing "exteriorization" one can perceive details of things not in the ordinary realm of senses and which involve variables so numerous that one couldn't have simply guessed, recalled, or imagined what was happening remotely but nevertheless accurately perceived. Unfortunately this can't be done on an at will, repeatable basis, so as to prove to a parapsychologist, for instance, the reality of exteriorization as opposed to it being some weird brain state, which is what most rabid materialists insist is the sole rational basis for all out-of-body experiences. Similarly some out-of-body cases studied from the near death experience involve accounts of conversations had in places remote from where the actual near dead person was - the person could not have simply heard these conversations nor imagined them if they can recount them that well.
It is an entirely subjective experience at present, though cases show it is a real experience at least some of the time, in my view. In my case, for instance, I "saw" a car coming down the road towards the building I was in which had a specific grill, specific amount of traffic around it, specific color and body style, etc etc., and then a few seconds later when it actually came in view of the window it matched up perfectly with what I "saw" when it was not in any conception in view. This was during an exercise which very frequently gives a person their first experience of "exteriorization", though not invariably.
Most people who have experienced exteriorization in a way that confirms to them, subjectively, that it is real rather than some weird brain state are thereafter willing to stick with Scientology for a long time in hopes of improving the stability and at-will control of this state. So far I don't think anyone's achieved that at all - at least no one I've met has including a horde of so called "OTs". I certainly wasn't willing to put up with all the bullshiat of membership and spend more time studying Scientology once I came into the option of dropping it at 18, despite having what I considered a completely reliable (if subjective) proof of the basic Scientology "theta" idea via exteriorization. They can introduce you to a new reality, but don't seem to have what it takes to help you live in it consistently, as advertised. I find the few psychiatrists and researchers into out-of-body, such as those doing experiments with ketamine or hyperventalation, much more worthy of my time and attention even if they do often wind up concluding "it's just a brain state". They might be wrong in my opinion, but at least they aren't weasely blowhards and share what they know without a lot of flim-flam, obsessive conspiracy theorizing, and yarn spinning. Also, I prefer operant conditioning or other behavioral science regimes as the explanation of most human behavior rather than Hubbard's stab at it. I still agree with him that we are "thetans", I just don't think he had the self-discipline to follow through on this idea very well and don't bother contemplating his extended views on the matter anymore.
1. The metaphysical and material/physical realms are utterly separate in nature, with the material realm subject to the metaphysical for some purposes but the metaphysical in no way controlled by the material.
2. The main occupants of the metaphysical realm are referred to as "thetans" merely to give them a name which has no historical baggage to it whatsoever.
(A) Higher orders of sentient being than the ordinary thetan, such as God, gods, or angels, are assumed possible or probable but never specifically addressed in Scientology - it's a religion leaving one free to pursue one's own theology.
(B) "Thetan" does not refer to ancient space aliens, as some half-informed tittering critics or on-lookers like to think, but is simply the name for every sentient entity that makes up a conventional person. One never "has" a thetan, one is a thetan. Most, but not all thetans, do in fact interact with the material realm on an ongoing seemingly perpetual basis, most but not all going so far as to possess a material body, usually of animal construction, of which the human body is the most popular to own and pretend to "be" on this particular planet. A few who are in a state where they aren't pretending to be in a body might like to pretend they are a higher order of being and play silly little games with the rest of us.
(C) A special branch of thetans, so called "body thetans" (a completely secret and hidden doctrine in Scientology that one is exposed to only after jumping through a long series of preliminary hoops), are merely thetans who are
(1) too terrified of being identified as someone in a body and thus susceptible to being targeted, but also are
(2) too terrified of being lonely and out of touch with other intelligence,
that they can't resist clinging onto some body inhabited by someone much more capable and unafraid compared to themselves. This is much like a toddler clinging on to a mother's skirt while following her around and hoping to be protected, able to hid from threats, and not feel alone and in terror.
Personally I think "body thetans" are a full-of-shiat theory, but have to accept that if thetans exist this special impaired type of thetan might exist too, at least in some instances. I think Hubbard came up with this idea largely to account for why he looked in such rotten shape one day when he ought to be very healthy if he was such a potent juju weilding type person, so full of magic mojo after working so intimately with the deeper secrets of existence for so many years. He had previously acknowledged some rare cases in which more than one thetan might be holding onto and attempting to be in possession of a meat body (akin to demonic possession), but suggested such rarities were not a big issue, ordinary exorcism or other ritual could cope with it as it had in the past, and no special Scientology process would really be needed other than assessing why two intelligent people are in a fight as if in normal life in separate bodies, and the whole "body thetan" idea was pretty much a nonsequiter to his previous positions. His attribution of somatic pains and ills to some puny little being too terrified of being alone and yet too terrified of being spotted and thus subject to attack, as cause of unwanted events in a body inhabited by a much stronger being and to all other respects apparently under the stronger beings complete control, just doesn't add up to me.
3. Thetans participate in the material realm only through a complex set of self-deceptions and self-imposed limitations, one of the most crucial of which is a complexly nested scheme that involves purposely perceiving only an illusory version of both the material and metaphysical "theta" realm rather than the real version of either, in order to maintain participation in the material realm despite belonging entirely to a metaphysical "theta" realm and the two realms being essentially unrelated.
It is essential, also, that an illusory "self" be self-perceived if one is to guard the persistence of the dual (or more) illusions masking both the material and theta realities. It is theorized that mere accurate self-perception may be enough in some cases to start unraveling the other illusions that one is persistently creating to mask the material and theta realities. Some people hold the idea that most religions teach about higher orders of being, such as God, gods, or angels, largely as a method of maintaining an illusory self conception, i.e. that one continues to believe in a false self-conception by means of first defining a falsely perceived order of beings that one is defined in relation to and then using that to falsely perceive one's own nature. This doesn't mean there is no such order of higher beings, merely that one uses a masking illusion about them to keep their reality from oneself, this in turn to keep intact one's masking illusion about oneself, which is all part and parcel of one's masking illusions about - well everything in short.
People who shout at deeply learned Scientologists that they are nuts and out of touch with reality probably prompt the Scientologist to think "My that person is passionate about his favorite masking illusion." Deeply learned Scientologists tend to assume most of what everyday humans perceive is merely a deliberately distorted illusory version of the same thing, and of illusory nature in such a way as best suits that person without being too out of step in the larger game being played - i.e. partially idiosyncratic though mostly socially constructed and agreed upon. On occasion some specific person might not be illusorily obscuring some aspect of reality, and if you want accurate knowledge about reality for some special purpose you can consult that person's ideas on the subject - such as in the way physicist accurately describe matter while still maintaining an illusory perception of everything else, same as the rest of humanity in the main. Deeply learned Scientologists tend to find "brainwashing" allegations hilarious as hell, because unbrainwashing is what they are about in their estimate, and it is funny to hear people so vehemently insist that the common illusion be respected at all times upon pain of having insinuations about one spoken. Deeply learned Scientologists find the sheeple around them funny as hell except for the fact that they are so persistently annoying towards anyone not pretending to be a sheeple as the script calls for.
4. Got a problem perceiving accurately either the real physical or metaphysical realms? (Which is the same as saying "Got a problem?" in Scientology.) "Scientology can help you with that", (the standard come-on for anything you say that ails you) which is in reality the ultimate solution Scientology has for everything: accurate perception of reality in itself is enough to utterly resolve any problem and alter any condition. "Greater awareness" is essentially the one panacea in Scientology, though it might have to be achieved in various baby steps and peculiar methods. Because of the deliberateness of forgetting the theta realm, and the complexity with which a scheme of dual illusions (or greater in number if one is employing extensively nested illusions to mask both the material and theta realms) is perpetuated to maintain one's role in the material game, it might be that ONLY very peculiar sounding methods are able to restore awareness in some of its aspects.
5. Among its helpful exercises are some intended to let you glimpse, whether just briefly or permanently, the actual operation of the theta realm. One of the most powerful of these experiences is called "exteriorization", or leaving the body.
It actually involves no leaving at all, just experiencing a reality in which you don't have a location in space except as an illusion, because a location in space is a purely physical thing and you aren't physical at all, only your body is.
It is possible, but not guaranteed, that in experiencing "exteriorization" one can perceive details of things not in the ordinary realm of senses and which involve variables so numerous that one couldn't have simply guessed, recalled, or imagined what was happening remotely but nevertheless accurately perceived. Unfortunately this can't be done on an at will, repeatable basis, so as to prove to a parapsychologist, for instance, the reality of exteriorization as opposed to it being some weird brain state, which is what most rabid materialists insist is the sole rational basis for all out-of-body experiences. Similarly some out-of-body cases studied from the near death experience involve accounts of conversations had in places remote from where the actual near dead person was - the person could not have simply heard these conversations nor imagined them if they can recount them that well.
It is an entirely subjective experience at present, though cases show it is a real experience at least some of the time, in my view. In my case, for instance, I "saw" a car coming down the road towards the building I was in which had a specific grill, specific amount of traffic around it, specific color and body style, etc etc., and then a few seconds later when it actually came in view of the window it matched up perfectly with what I "saw" when it was not in any conception in view. This was during an exercise which very frequently gives a person their first experience of "exteriorization", though not invariably.
Most people who have experienced exteriorization in a way that confirms to them, subjectively, that it is real rather than some weird brain state are thereafter willing to stick with Scientology for a long time in hopes of improving the stability and at-will control of this state. So far I don't think anyone's achieved that at all - at least no one I've met has including a horde of so called "OTs". I certainly wasn't willing to put up with all the bullshiat of membership and spend more time studying Scientology once I came into the option of dropping it at 18, despite having what I considered a completely reliable (if subjective) proof of the basic Scientology "theta" idea via exteriorization. They can introduce you to a new reality, but don't seem to have what it takes to help you live in it consistently, as advertised. I find the few psychiatrists and researchers into out-of-body, such as those doing experiments with ketamine or hyperventalation, much more worthy of my time and attention even if they do often wind up concluding "it's just a brain state". They might be wrong in my opinion, but at least they aren't weasely blowhards and share what they know without a lot of flim-flam, obsessive conspiracy theorizing, and yarn spinning. Also, I prefer operant conditioning or other behavioral science regimes as the explanation of most human behavior rather than Hubbard's stab at it. I still agree with him that we are "thetans", I just don't think he had the self-discipline to follow through on this idea very well and don't bother contemplating his extended views on the matter anymore.