************* The following message is relayed to you by [email protected] ************
From International Viewpoints (IVy) Issue 12 - July 1993 See Home Page at http://www.ivymag.org/ A View from the Bridge By Eric Townsend, England Chapter One Body, Mind And Thetan - The Basic Combination(1) Despite the fact that many people have considerable disagreements with traditional religions, most will at least accept the proposition that they personally have some form of spiritual life and awareness. The three elements of Body, Mind and Spirit inevitably come up quite early in ones exposure to Scientology, although confronting the idea of being a spirit can be avoided for a while if one is involved exclusively in the area of Dianetics. Nonetheless when the idea of the three in combination first comes up it is usually accepted quite readily and without protest. Universes To look at this proposition more closely we need to start with the idea of UNIVERSES. Prior to contacting Scientology, we probably thought of universes only as 'the universe', that is the one made up of stars, planets, space and galaxies. The definition in the Technical Dictionary does of course include that universe but it goes further to point out that there can be and are many universes. The basic definition of a universe is a 'whole system of created things'. An example of another universe would be the game of Chess. Here we have whole set of rules about players and pieces together with agreements about what can and can't be done. These conventions can be said to be a 'whole system of created things' which have been created and agreed upon by the potential players. The games of chess can then go on in this self-contained world, in which there are an enormous range of possibilities, without reference to anything outside it. What is known as 'the universe', made up of stars and space, also includes our planet. The basic ingredients of this universe are MATTER, ENERGY, SPACE and TIME. This definition is not exclusive to Scientology but within Scientology it is usually referred to as the MEST UNIVERSE. The MEST universe includes not just the substance of this planet, its rocks and waters, but also everything to be found here. We can't make a distinction between whether it is inert, like stone, or MOBILE, like a plant or an animal. Both are made up of atoms and molecules, which we now know have a very similar structure to stars and planets. The human BODY, too, is part of the MEST universe and its components obey the same rules as all other parts of the MEST universe. With the knowledge of physics, biology and medicine that we have to-day, the functioning of the human body holds few secrets. If we contrast our knowledge and technology in these areas with 100 years ago, we can foresee a time when it will be possible to construct a working model of any part of the human body. This is because it is a chemical engine that runs on food, water and air. All its parts and all its functions follow the rules of the MEST universe. The question which is not yet answered is what starts the machine working and keeps it going. Mind Next we come to the Mind. In this area we can't be so certain what we are dealing with. There is a strong confusion for many people between the mind and the brain. Physiological experiments on brains show that certain parts of the brain are connected to certain body parts. So a small impact on one part of the brain will produce a sensation in, for example, the left hand. Beyond this, not very much is known for certain. There are a wide range of mental activities for which we have virtually no explanations. How do we do mental arithmetic, what part of the brain do we use when we make a decision, and where are memories kept? The enormous range of activities that we do with our minds is out of all proportion to the few pounds of sloppy grey matter that is the human brain. It is true that we can today mimic certain mental functions with a computer. On the other hand, even with today's micro-technology, a computer to carry out just a small part of the mind's routine activities would fill a very large room. The difference between where we think the mind operates from, the brain, and what it does, is an indicator that it is only partly a phenomenon of the MEST universe. It has been a function of the new science known as Psychology to try to persuade us that the mind is all contained in the brain. Psychology also tries to explain all mental activity as routines which the brain learns in the same way as our hands learn to tie shoe laces. It could be that the brain operates on a mechanical basis that is way beyond anything our science has so far analyzed. Most people however cling firmly to the belief that some of the perceptions they receive through the mind could not possibly be learnt, mechanical routines. Have you noticed how uncomfortable most people seem to get when you mention the functioning of the mind and particularly mental health? This could be their uncertainty about where their mind fits in the scheme of things. There is another indicator of the disquiet which people feel about mental health. What is it that virtually everybody knows in any locality you visit in the so-called developed world? It is the name of the local Mental Hospital! Yet the emergence of Psychology has not really helped people since it gives them very little help in controlling a wide variety of those mental conditions that they don't want, such as depression, phobias or anxiety. Until a little over 100 years ago, there was no such thing as Psychology. It is a much newer field of study than Medicine or Biology. Interestingly however the term Psychology is derived from the word 'Psyche' which was the Greek term for the human Soul or Spirit. Spirit The word used for the soul or spirit in Scientology is THETAN. This is because both of the words have been utilized by various religions and given overtones of meaning that relate to those religions. By taking a completely new and clean word like Thetan we can look at what it is and does without any preconceptions. Even in to-days materialistic world, it is likely that a larger number of the world's population believe that they have a spiritual life than the number who don't. In the last century Anthropologists have contacted many isolated tribes that had had little or no previous contact with the outside world. Without exception they all have some religious belief system and the vast majority believe in some form of life after death. Modern man has tried to wipe away these beliefs by claiming they are unscientific or irrational, but somehow they keep coming back! The Christian religions evolved a belief that man has an immortal soul that only comes into existence when his body is born but does live on after body death. In addition to this, it has played down the identity element of this soul so that the person is portrayed as existing separately from his soul while he is living on earth. This traditional view is given a strong jolt in Scientology when one is presented with the proposition that the Thetan is you. This is best stated in the C/S1 Definitions with the words: 'The thetan is the 'I'; one doesn't have or own a thetan, one is a thetan'. We can only decide if this proposition is true or not by our own immediate response to it. I have never heard of anyone disagreeing or protesting. We cannot prove it, however, by any physical demonstration. This is because we have now moved out of the MEST universe. We cannot point to a thetan or say where it is located because it would have to have material form, which it has not, or a location in space, which it has not. Nevertheless we can still know it exists. It exists in a different universe, known in Scientology as the universe of THETA. Theta Universe What is the Theta universe? It is a complete system with its own nature and rules which are quite different from those of the MEST universe. It is the universe of THOUGHT. This may sound inconsequential but as we shall see, without thought there is no LIFE. Thought is the motive force of what we call Life. Theta or Thought is what gives life to MEST. The primary ingredients of theta are affinity, reality and communication. Theta is curious and wants to understand. It finds out about things by exerting life force and reasoning. Theta is a huge potential life force to which we belong as individual identities. We as individual Thetans have chosen to participate in an enormous task. That task is the mastering of the MEST universe. This task could be likened to the conquest of South America by the Spanish in the fifteenth century. Unlike that conquest however, the MEST universe does not contain an indigenous population of beings who already live there. All it contains are matter, energy, space and time. In our terms we could say that it was and is totally inert, that it is not able to move, act or think. There was no life there because life is a characteristic of the Theta universe. The Theta universe then set about the mastering and harnessing of the MEST universe for its own purposes. We are its soldiers and we have come with as much ignorance and arrogance as the Conquistadores who followed Cortez. Why this came about and how the MEST universe came into existence is outside the scope of this book but an explanation is available within the subject of Scientology. We started this chapter by looking at the Body and working up through the Mind and to spirit or Thetan. Now let us look at the combination from the Thetan's viewpoint. Unfortunately I will have to refer an individual Thetan in the masculine because we have in our language an enforced sexual division. Thetans of course do not have a sex and only choose a sexual identity with each body. The word 'it' will not do since at the moment in the development of our language it denotes an inanimate object or a very low life form, which is in complete contradiction to the nature of a Thetan. For the moment 'he' and 'him' will have to be used but it is to be hoped that this quirk of our language will not always be the case. Our Challenge We as thetans decided to take on the challenge of the MEST universe. As thetans we have enormous abilities but they are not immediately applicable in this foreign environment. That is why we are here, to find out how to handle it. The MEST universe is not of itself a hostile environment but it is extremely conservative. Its elements work on very predictable lines and any disturbance can have severe consequences. It can be compared to stepping out of a space probe into an environment about which we know very little. The difference is that we have no Mother Ship or Mission Control to supply us and we have to make do as we go along. To continue the Lunar analogy, we have devised, developed evolved the bodies we have today as our equivalent of the Moon Buggy! All the other life forms in the MEST universe were devised by us to provide a total ecology to support us as the leading life form in at least this part of the MEST universe. In case you think all this a bit of far-fetched fancy on my part, I would mention that these basic ideas were presented to the world as early as 1951 by Ron Hubbard in the Science of Survival. So the thetan has evolved the organism of a Body for somewhere to be. This gives the thetan a location in space, you can usually find him in or around his body! To that extent he is in the MEST universe, looking after his creation, his body, and using it do things which interest him. As a busy thetan, he would find it a bit tedious to be constantly pumping lungs in and out and keeping red and white blood corpuscles in balance. So he developed a SOMATIC MIND (Soma is Greek for body) to do these mechanical body functions for him. The Somatic Mind takes care of the physiological matters mentioned above and can be taught basic body skills like balancing on a bicycle or hitting a ball with implements of varying length. The Thetan can also use the Somatic Mind as a Caretaker for his Body. It gave him the opportunity to temporarily vacate the area of his Body to go somewhere else in the MEST universe or to turn his attention somewhere else and leave the MEST universe altogether. The next stage was to develop this intermediary capacity into a MIND to do various things without constant reference to the thetan. This would include driving cars, household chores, typing, reading and various kinds of work. This Mind is a very clever device. It learns by storing an enormous number of pictures and operates by referring to these to make decisions. So capable and competent is the Mind that the Thetan can leave it to do a wide range of activities. The Mind is delighted to be given the responsibility but if unsupervised for too long, like any caretaker, it can become careless or irresponsible. Middle position of mind The mind occupies a middle position between the universes. It is brought into existence initially by the body and starts accumulating pictures, or impressions, in the womb. It accumulates pictures continuously and by the age of four or five it is very knowledgeable about its environment. It doesn't store these pictures in a physical place but in a kind of 'no-man's' land between the two universes. We know the pictures have tiny amounts of mass to keep them available but they cannot be found unless the mind calls them up. In Scientology we say these are kept in memory banks but as far as we know the banks cannot be located in space. The thetan monitors the progress of the body in these early stages. It doesn't seem to interfere provided the body/mind is developing in the direction it wants it to go to pursue the thetan's interests and purposes. It seems content at this stage, in most cases, to just sit back and enjoy all the new and vivid experiences that a child has in the MEST universe. To help things along the thetan may give an occasional hint of a wider awareness or even lend the mind some pictures of his own, since he too has his own bank of pictures which he has been collecting while in different life forms over a very long time. The usual pattern seems to be that at a later time, in late adolescence or early adulthood, the thetan starts to make its existence known and to require some influence over the body and its activities in order to pursue it aims and purposes. It can be seen already that there is scope for conflict, confusion and misunderstanding on several fronts. Firstly who is giving instructions to which parts of the body at any particular time? Secondly, whose pictures are being consulted for making decisions and drawing conclusions? Thirdly, are MEST rules being followed to handle MEST and theta rules followed to handle theta, or are the two being mixed up? Then there is often uncertainty by the Mind and Body about what the Thetan wants them to do. Further complications also arise when the thetan is also somewhat confused and cannot himself remember exactly what he wanted to do. These confusions unfortunately can have serious consequences and helping the Thetan to sort them out is what we deal with in auditing. This the subject of the next chapter. References: From: Dianetics and Scientology Technical Dictionary: Universe, Matter, Energy, Space, Time, MEST, MEST Universe, Body, Theta, Theta Universe, Thought, Life, Thetan, Somatic Mind, Mind, HOB 15.7.78RA (Revised 25.3.81 & 10.3.84) Scientology Auditing CS1 Science of Survival - Prediction of Human Behavior(1951) Appendix of Definitions - Evolution Note: The book A View from the Bridge can be obtained from Anima Publications, PO Box 10, Bramhall, Stockport SK7 2QF, England The price is 10 English Pounds plus 10% for postage (surface mail) (1)Introduction to this serialized book is in IVy 11, page 24 Tue Jul 11 20:29:22 EDT 2006 http://www.ivymag.org/IVy.html IVy, the familiar name for "International Viewpoints" is an on Cyber magazine, sent four times a year Internationally to those who subscribe. Here is the place to look if you are interested in using Freezone Clearing and Enhancement Technology to help yourself and others. To become an IVy subscriber and forum member, send payment via Paypal. We accept credit cards, check-by-email, bank transfers, etc. Via this service. You log into this payment services website: www.Paypal.com You may have to register with them. It takes a few minutes. You send your payment to our designated account: [email protected] That's right. The name of our Paypal account is an email address. Send US$ 25 for one year subscription/membership to [email protected] - or sign up for two years (-10%) and send US$ 45. Contact us via email, [email protected] if you need any assistance. To get a free copy: email us at [email protected] and write "Free IVy, please!" in subject line Website: IVyMag.org _______________________________________________ Trom mailing list [email protected] http://lists.newciv.org/mailman/listinfo/trom
