The Parts of Man
From this discovery, Mr. Hubbard went on to precisely delineate the parts of man.First there is the body itself. The body is the organized physical composition or substance of man, whether living or dead. It is not the being himself.
Next, there is the mind, which consists essentially of pictures.
Finally, and most important, there is the thetan. The thetan is not a thing. It is the creator of things.
The senior most of the three parts of man, obviously, is the thetan, for without the thetan there would be no mind or animation of the body, while without a body or a mind there is still animation and life in the thetan.
The thetan utilizes his mind as a control system between himself and the physical universe. The mind is not the brain. The brain is part of the body and does not determine intelligence. It can be likened to a switchboard. If one said that a telephone switchboard was the intelligence of the corporation it served, this would be like saying the brain was the intelligence of the person. It is just not true. The brain is simply a conduit that, like a telephone wire, carries messages. The mind accumulates recordings of thoughts, conclusions, decisions, observations and perceptions of a thetan throughout his existence. The thetan uses his mind in the handling of life and the physical universe. The body (including the brain) is the thetan’s communication center. It is a physical object, not the being himself.
The thetan is the source of all creation and is life itself. It becomes fully apparent for the first time in man’s experience that the spirit is immortal and possessed of capabilities well in excess of those hitherto predicted. The exteriorization of the thetan from his body accomplishes the realization of goals envisioned – but questionably, if ever, obtained – in spiritualism, mysticism and such fields.
Recognition of the thetan makes possible gains in ability and awareness – improvements which are not attainable in any practice holding man to be only a body and thus entirely subject to physical universe limitations. Psychology, for instance, had worked itself into a dead end. Having no concept of the existence of an animating factor to life, it had degenerated into a practice devoted solely to the creation of an effect on living forms.
In Scientology, however, the thetan himself is directly addressed. Such an approach to improvement accomplishes increased spiritual freedom, intelligence and ability for the individual, and clarifies any part of life.
