Editing Thetan (section)

== Rebirth and afterlife ==

Thetans are believed to be reborn time and time again in new bodies through a process called "assumption" which is analogous to [[reincarnation]].<ref name="Neusner" /> Dell deChant and [[Danny Jorgensen]] liken Scientology to [[Hinduism]], in that both ascribe a causal relationship between the experiences of earlier incarnations and one's present life.<ref name="Neusner" /> With each rebirth, the effects of the [[MEST universe]] ([[MEST (Scientology)|MEST]] here stands for matter, energy, space, and time) on the thetan are believed to become stronger.<ref name="Neusner" /> Scientologists believe that the thetan has been "embodied on many occasions", but they generally avoid the term "reincarnation". They also reject the idea of transmigration, "i.e. the belief that the thetan would incarnate into any animal less than human." Scientology's first phase has to do with removing "encumbrances acquired in this life and in past existences," [[J. Gordon Melton]] writes. According to Melton, these encumbrances are called "engrams" and are "described as aberrations attached to the self that produce dysfunctional behavior patterns."<ref>{{cite journal |title=A Contemporary Ordered Religious Community: The Sea Org Organization |journal=The Journal of CESNUR |year=2018 |last=Melton |first=J. Gordon |volume=2 |issue=2 |issn=2532-2990 }}</ref>

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 [[Implant (Scientology)|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."<ref>{{cite news | first=Joel | last=Sappell |author2=Welkos, Robert W. | url=https://www.latimes.com/local/la-scientologysidea062490-story.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080516141634/http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-scientologysidea062490,1,5476601,full.story?coll=la-news-comment |url-status=live |archive-date=2008-05-16 |title=Defining the Theology |work=[[Los Angeles Times]] |page=A36:1 |date=1990-06-24 |access-date=2007-04-16}}</ref>{{r|Cempa}}

In Scientology terminology, a thetan whose physical body has died is said to have "dropped the body".{{r|lewis-ch4|p=89}}

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."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gallagher |first1=Eugene V. |author-link=Eugene V. Gallagher |title=The New Religious Movements Experience in America |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |year=2004 |ol=10420337M}}</ref>