Cybernetic Influence on the Origins of the Scientological Understanding of Self

This article examines the Scientological understanding of the self as a spiritual being, or "thetan," by looking closely at the origins of the doctrine that underlies both this term and the related mystical experience called "exteriorization," an out-of-body religious experience that, for many Scientologists, confirms the validity of belief in their spiritual existence as a thetan. The article also demonstrates that, in his creation of Scientology doctrine, L. Ron Hubbard was not only influenced by ideas from popular psychology, science-fiction, and various strains of twentieth-century esotericism, as is widely accepted, but also and substantially by early Information Age ideas popularized by the founding father of cybernetics, Norbert Wiener.