THETA TRAPS, how can you trap a thetan? By curiosity, by giving him awards and prizes (of an implant), by retractor screens, by mock-ups, by ornate buildings which he will enter unsuspectingly to be electroniced down: by many such means
the thetan is reduced from knowing to a colonist, a slave, a MEST body. All theta traps have one thing in common: they use electronic force to knock the thetan into forgetting, into unknowingness, into effect. Their purpose is to rid the area of those nuisances, the thetans who cannot be policed, and gain personnel–always the former, not always the latter. (HOM, pp. 71-72)
Hubbard, L. R., (1975) Dianetics and Scientology Technical Dictionary. Los Angeles: Church of Scientology of California Publications Organization.