Thetans And Fnords

What is written below is very incorrect. You could translate "thetan" to "spirit" or "soul" and not be too far off, though they are very careful to differentiate that they aren't referring to "ghosts", just the spiritual entity underlying everybody, including yourself.

A thetan is held to *be* you. You aren't trying to get rid of thetans, you are trying to help one! (yourself)

As thetans not tied to a body are not subject to the rules of the universe, where they are "from" means nothing. Which color is the sound from a Cello?

Perhaps you are confusing "thetan" with "engram", which is supposed to be an undesirable impact of the physical universe on a thetan? -- A Scientologist?

You haven't finished the Scientology course. After you pay about another $200,000.00 you'll find out the stuff below. Consider this page something like skipping to the end of a long and not very good novel ...

Thetans are a scientology invention based on the demonization techniques of established religions. The chump is told that most of her problems stem from Thetans, which are anxieties and bad habits that can be solved by "clearing". As the clearing process progresses, Thetans are identified with the chump's existing value system, bodily functions, and established relationships. At the same time a MindFsck supporting the external origin of Thetans as aliens from another world (I kid you not) is gradually introduced. If the process proceeds to its completion, what results is a clear thrall. If it fails, the scientologists still get paid for their services.

Fnords are an equivalent advertising technique. The chump is told that most of her problems stem from Fnords, which are anxieties and bad habits that can be solved by "purchasing". As the purchasing process progresses, Fnords are identified with the chump's existing value system, bodily functions, and established relationships. At the same time, a mythology supporting the external origin of Fnords as social evils is gradually introduced. If the process proceeds to its completion, what results is an endebted consumer. If it fails, the advertisers still get paid for their services...

It's too easy to damn things by association. Demons, thetans and fnords are where people simply stop thinking.

You're half right. Scientology actually uses the word in two different, almost contradictory ways: 1) Your spirit or essence is your "thetan". but, 2) You can be afflicted (in a negative way) by "body thetans", which Scientology purports to help you "remove". They seem to be described almost like "alien spiritual parasites" of some kind. So ridding yourself of them must be kind of like "delousing".

Meanwhile, Dianetics is all about the removal of "engrams", which are basically "spiritual scars" obtained from past traumatic experiences, and persistent negative "ideas" about the world or oneself.

You speak with authority about a subject you clearly have not studied. Your "research" seems to be a scan of material posted to Internet sites maintained by an interesting assortment of bitter people. Your misuse of terminology gives you away to anyone who has spent any time at all learning the data. I suppose there is little point in making an argument about it, so I'll skip the anecdotes and all that. I was there. I took the time to learn it. The stuff works. It saves lives and sanity. I've spent time with the detractors. I've spent time with the disaffected. I've met the good guys and the bad guys. I know both sides. Net result: the stuff works. Take it from a skeptic. Trust me, my investigation was not some sanitized tourist thing. My daughter wanted to study there; I said, "after I check it out." I spent more than a year on it. You want to trash it, go ahead, but you haven't been there.

I was there. I learned it from your own people. Maybe it's you wackos need to get your story straight amongst yourselves. And keep right on raping people out of their money. It's a living, innit?

That darn Galactic Overlord Xenu! I never liked that guy.

Interestingly enough, I suggest that there is a GrainOfTruth in each that provides enough credibility that the meme survives.

MemesShmemes. Memes, Fnords and Thetans all seem much the same thing, a way of distancing ourselves from experience by focusing on abstract differences and similarities.

Jungian pyschology offers one interpretation that I find helpful in understanding and moving past such "demons": that these ThetansAndFnords are, in fact, projections of interior aspects of ourselves. We personify these projections as demons, thetans, fnords, mothers, fathers, lovers, and so on. We then interact with the projections (positively or negatively) because such interactions feel more safe because of their otherness.

What's the difference between interior and exterior? What's the difference between projections and experiences? And wtf is otherness?

The AchillesHeel of a religious system built on such concepts is that usually our effort to rid ourselves of these entities instead strengthens them. We project some aspect of ourselves that we find threatening onto a thetan. Then we attack it. This attack, however, is an unconscious attack on ourselves (because we remain attached to our projection), and boomerangs back -- often strengthening, within ourselves, the very aspect we had hoped to remove. And so the thetan becomes stronger, and we attack harder. This unstable positive feedback loop has made L. Ron Hubbard, along with thousands of similar charlatans, quite wealthy.

I think the charlatans don't need anything so complicated as that. They just take advantage of TheSecretOfPower.

Other traditions, including practitioners of Zen, Buddhism, Celtic spirituality, and even certain JudeoChristian? mystics, suggest that a more successful approach is to, in the words of the Celtic poet John O'Donohue, "offer a welcoming hearth in our soul to those negative sides of us". It is when we accept and welcome our demons, thetans, and fnords that we discover that they also strengthen us -- and that they can be vital parts of ourselves when loved, accepted and integrated within us. Some Christian mystical traditions suggest that this is the specific purpose of the New Testament admonitions to "love your enemy" -- the recognition that often the "hatred" we feel for an "enemy" is only our reaction to some "awful" side of ourselves that we recognize in that person.

Your observation is very insightful. Still "love your enemy" (also known as ConquerWithCompassion) is also just good strategy. Your enemy doesn't see himself as you see him; by maintaining compassion for him, finding a good way for him to prosper, you can often make him your friend. Love your enemy is simply horse sense.