Сциентологиядағы өмір күшінің ұғымы

Scientology concept of life force

In Scientology, the concept of the thetan ('/θ//eɪ//t//ən/) is similar to the concept of self, or the spirit or soul as found in several belief systems. The term is derived from the Greek letter Θ, theta, which in Scientology beliefs represents "the source of life, or life itself." Thetan has been described as:
A "thetan is an immortal spiritual being; the human soul." "The being who is the individual and who handles and lives in the body." "A thetan is not a thing, a thetan is the creator of things." Hubbard first introduced his ideas of "theta beings" in a lecture series of March 1952. He attributed the coining of the word to his wife Mary Sue. As an essential point of Scientology doctrine, a person's sense of identity and self awareness stem entirely from the "thetan". It is redundant to refer to "a person's thetan", because the person does not exist independently. Hubbard once defined a thetan as: "  having no mass, no wave length, no energy, no measurable qualities and no time or location in space except by consideration or postulate. The spirit is not a thing. It is the creator of things. "</blockquote>Although Hubbard did not name the doctor concerned, there was indeed such an attempt, by Duncan MacDougall, to measure the weight of dying patients to determine the weight of the soul, although MacDougall's experiments took place about fifty years before Hubbard's lectures, not fifteen or twenty, and are generally not regarded as having any scientific validity. According to Hubbard's son Ronald DeWolf (born L. Ron Hubbard Jr.), his father stated that thetans are immortal and perpetual, having willed themselves into existence at some point several trillion years ago. After they originated, thetans generated "points to view" or "dimension points", causing space to come into existence. They agreed that other thetans' dimension points existed, thus bringing into existence the entire universe. In the primordial past, according to Scientologist teachings, thetans brought the material universe into being largely for their own pleasure." The universe is thought to have no independent reality, but to derive its apparent reality from the fact that most thetans agree it exists. Scientologists believe that thetans fell from grace when they began to identify with their creation, rather than their original state of spiritual purity. Thetans are believed to be reborn time and time again in new bodies through a process called "assumption" which is analogous to reincarnation. Jon Atack, whose book A Piece of Blue Sky details how he reached Operating Thetan level V before leaving Scientology, describes Hubbard's doctrines about thetans: "Thetans are all knowing beings, and became bored because there were no surprises. Hubbard asserted that the single most important desire in all beings is to have a 'game'. To have a 'game' it was necessary to 'not know' certain things, so certain perceptions were negated ('not is ed')." Since thetans knew everything, this required them to abandon or suppress perceptions and knowledge. Over time, the loss of perception accumulated and certain thetans began to cause harm to others. MEST (physical) beings also sought to "trap" thetans in order to control them. Thetans came to learn contrition, punishing themselves for their own "harmful" acts. According to Hubbard, an essential part of the thetans' game was the "conquest" of matter, energy, space, and time by the life force, theta. This has produced multiple universes which have ended and begun in succession, each new one being more solid and entrapping than the last. The thetans have by now become so enmeshed in the physical universe that many have identified themselves totally with it, forgetting their quadrillions of years of existence and their original godly powers. Religious scholar Richard Holloway writes that thetans were not created, but they created themselves, adopting and creating the human body as a vehicle for existence.

Non Scientologists Joel Sappell and Robert Welkos described in a 1990 article in the LA Times how Scientologists believe that when a person dies—or, in Scientology terms, when a thetan abandons its physical body—they go to a "landing station" on the planet Venus, where the thetan is re implanted and told lies about its past life and its next life. The Venusians take the thetan, "capsule" it, and send it back to Earth to be thrown into the ocean off the coast of California. They quote Hubbard as saying, "If you can get out of that, and through that, and wander around through the cities and find some girl who looks like she is going to get married or have a baby or something like that, you're all set. And if you can find the maternity ward to a hospital or something, you're OK. And you just eventually just pick up a baby." While Hubbard's concept of the thetan led to the development of an elaborate cosmology, the doctrinal structure he created is based on the following propositions: "Man is an immortal spiritual being. His experience extends well beyond a single lifetime. His capabilities are unlimited, even if not presently realized."

According to Scientology doctrine, a thetan exists whether operating a human body or not. Scientology advertises itself as being able to "rehabilitate" the thetan of a practitioner to a state where the individual can operate with or without a "flesh body". The term "operating thetan" would then apply as it does when an individual is operating a body. The Operating Thetan (OT) levels are the upper level courses in Scientology. The Church defines "Operating Thetan" as "knowing and willing cause over life, thought, and matter, energy, space and time (MEST)." The Church of Scientology states as a point of doctrine that an individual exists with or without a body.

A body thetan is a disincarnate thetan who is "stuck" in, on or near a human body, and all human bodies are said to be infested by these disembodied thetans, or clusters of them. This information is not revealed until a Scientologist reaches Section III of the Operating Thetan levels (commonly referred to as "OT III"). Body thetans were said by Hubbard to be a result of a prehistoric "Incident" involving Xenu.