The basic postulate of Scientology is that man is, in fact, a spiritual entity, a thetan which successively occupies material human bodies. The thetan is an individual expression of theta, by which is understood life or the life source. Loosely defined, the thetan is the soul, but it is also the real person, the continuing and persisting identity which transcends the body which it inhabits. It is said to be immaterial and immortal, or at least to have the capacity to be immortal, and to have an infinite creative potential. It is not part of the physical universe _ but it has the latent capacity to control that universe, which is comprised of Matter, Energy, Space and Time (MEST). Thetans are seen as having brought into being the material world largely for their own pleasure (as indeed might also be said of the creation of the world by the Christian God). It is held that, at sometime long past, thetans became victims of their own involvement with MEST, becoming entrapped by it and allowing their own creation to limit their own abilities and to circumscribe their sphere of operations. Thus, man's activities and achievements in the present material world fall far short of his potential: he is encumbered by innumerable past entanglements with MEST and these are recorded in are active mind which responds irrationally and emotionally to anything which recalls painful and traumatic past experiences (which he has suffered or caused to others). The reactive mind functions in defiance of that capacity for control which, were he able to recapture his true native spiritual abilities, he would be able to exercise over his body and his environment. Whilst man is regarded as fundamentally good, and both desirous and capable of survival, his past forfeiture of his abilities has rendered him an endangered species. >>>>>