Scientology is an esoteric Gnostic system based upon the belief that the true self, called the Thetan, is trapped in MEST (matter, energy, space, and time), the visible world. Freedom from that entrapped state to total freedom is accomplished in a series of steps that involve both awareness of one's state and taking action to detach oneself from the encumbrances that hold the Thetan to the material world. In Scientological terms, one crosses “The Bridge” to “total freedom” one step at a time. The process of moving up The Bridge is analogous to the degrees or levels of accomplishment familiar to anyone who has studied Esotericism.
Important to Scientology is a belief that the Thetan has, over the millennia, been embodied on many occasions, a belief commonly called reincarnation, though Scientologists generally avoid the term. They also eschew any idea of transmigration, i.e., the belief that the Thetan would incarnate into any animal form less than human. In the first stage of Scientology, one concentrates on removing from the Thetan some encumbrances acquired both in this life and in past existences. These encumbrances called “engrams” are described as aberrations attached to the self that produce dysfunctional behavior patterns. The completion of this initial work is symbolized by the acceptance of the status known as “Clear.” Once one has reached that plateau, one is now ready to begin exercising one's free life operating as a Thetan. The upper levels of Scientology offer the secret wisdom, the gnosis, necessary to continue removing the additional encumbrances from one's past lives and experiencing total freedom. (Lamont, Stewart. 1986. Page 8.)
Scientology's essential contribution to Esotericism has been the wedding of technological precision to the process of spiritual progress.............
