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Dianetics is a set of ideas about the nature and structure of the human mind developed primarily by L. Ron Hubbard in the late 1940s. First presented to the general public in his 1950 book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, Hubbard characterized Dianetics as a revolutionary alternative to conventional psychotherapy and psychiatry. He claimed that it could alleviate unwanted emotions, irrational fears and a wide range of illnesses that he regarded as being psychosomatic. Centered around a two-person counseling technique known as "auditing," Dianetics was to become the foundation of Hubbard's "applied religious philosophy," Scientology, in the early 1950s. It is still promoted and used by members of the Church of Scientology.

Dianetics has been highly controversial since its launch in the 1940s. It has been criticized as pseudoscientific quackery by most professional scientists and members of the medical community. While many practitioners of Scientology testify that they have found Dianetics techniques to be personally effective, there is a lack of independently corroborated empirical evidence in mainstream scientific literature for Hubbard's claims and the effectiveness of his methods, and it is not accepted by mainstream scientists as a bona fide scientific theory. The troubled histories of the organizations established to promote Dianetics have added to the controversy that surrounds Dianetics.

Basic concepts of Dianetics

Hubbard coined the term Dianetics from the Greek stems dia, meaning "through," and nous, meaning "mind," resulting in a word meaning mental as opposed to physical. The suffix "-etics" appears to have been inspired by cybernetics (Hubbard explicitly made this connection in a 1949 magazine article Hubbard, "Terra Incognita: The Mind", The Explorers Journal, winter 1949 / spring 1950. (available online)

Dianetics is presented as a systematic method of identifying the causes of and relieving many of an individual's mental, emotional or (psychosomatically) physical problems. Hubbard described Dianetics as "an organized science of thought built on definite axioms: statements of natural laws on the order of those of the physical sciences".

According to Dianetics, the human mind is made up of "mental image pictures," memories that faithfully record every aspect of an experience. Hubbard taught that these building blocks of the mind are literal pictures that have physical mass. Dianetics focuses on one particular type of mental image picture that Hubbard called the engram. Engrams are painful memories that are not normally accessible to the conscious mind . Engrams are defined in Dianetics as "a complete recording of a moment of unconsciousness containing physical pain or painful emotion and all perceptions." In other words, engrams are said to contain perfect and comprehensive records of traumatic moments, including events that occured at times that the mind was unconscious or overcome with pain. These memories may extend far into the subject's past, even including pre-natal experiences.

Hubbard dubbed the well-functioning conscious aspect of the mind the "analytical mind," which is claimed to be a flawless machine akin to a perfectly functioning calculator. The collection of mental engrams are stored in the unconscious "reactive mind" (or "reactive bank"). Engrams are claimed to be the source of virtually all mental and emotional troubles or "aberrations."

With Dianetics, Hubbard claimed to have discovered the fundamental "dynamic principal of existence," which he expressed with the exclamation "SURVIVE!" Hubbard proposed that physical or mental traumas caused "aberrations" in the mind, which produced adverse physical and emotional effects. He postulated that since pain was a threat to survival, the human mind sought to avoid it. Thus, in moments of stress the conscious "analytical mind" would shut down and create engrams that are stored in the normally inaccessible "reactive mind".

With the use of Dianetics techniques, Hubbard claimed, the reactive mind could be reached at will and all stored engrams could be purged. The central technique was "auditing," a two-person question-and-answer therapy designed to isolate and dissipate engrams (or "mental masses"). A counselor called an auditor addresses a series of questions to a subject, observes and records the subject's responses, and returns repeatedly to memories or areas of discussion that appear to be fraught with pain or stress until such time that the troubling memory has been identified and satisfactorialy confronted. Through this method, the reactive mind could be "cleared" of its content; a person who had completed this process of "clearing" would be a "Clear".

The benefits of going "Clear" would be dramatic, according to Hubbard. A "Clear" would have no compulsions, repressions, pychoses or neuroses, and would enjoy a near-perfect memory as well as a rise in IQ of as much as fifty points. He also claimed that as much as 70 per cent of illnesses were psychosomatic and could thus be cured by Dianetics. These included asthma, poor eyesight, color blindness, hearing deficiencies, stuttering, allergies, sinusitis, arthritis, high blood pressure, coronary trouble, dermatitis, ulcers, migraine, conjunctivitis, morning sickness, alcoholism, tuberculosis and the common cold, to which Clears would be immune. Hubbard also claimed that atheism, "zealotism" (by which he seems to have meant fundamentalism) and homosexuality could be "cured" through Dianetics, as they were all caused by engrams.

Hubbard claimed that unlike conventional medical or mental therapies, Dianetics would work every time if applied properly and "will invariably cure all psychosomatic ills and human aberrations." He wrote: "To date, over two hundred patients have been treated; of those two hundred, two hundred cures have been obtained."

Scientific evaluations

Some of the theoretical basis of Dianetics can be traced to the ideas of Sigmund Freud, whom Hubbard credited as an inspiration and was said to have used as a source. Freud had speculated forty years previously that traumas with similar content join together in "chains," embedded in the "unconscious" mind, causing irrational responses in the individual. According to Freud a "chain" would be relieved by inducing the patient to remember the earliest trauma, "with an accompanying expression of emotion."

The scientific literature records very few scientific evaluations having been conducted into the effectiveness and theoretical basis of Dianetics. Professor John A. Lee states in his evaluation of Dianetics:

Objective experimental verification of Hubbard's physiological and psychological doctrines is lacking. To date, no regular scientific agency has established the validity of his theories of prenatal perception and engrams, or cellular memory, or Dianetic reverie, or the effects of Scientology auditing routines. Existing knowledge contradicts Hubbard's theory of recording of perceptions during periods of unconsciousness.

Only two independent scientific studies are recorded in the MEDLINE database, both having been conducted in the 1950s by researchers at New York University:

Harvey Jay Fischer tested Dianetics therapy against three claims made by proponents and found it does not effect any significant changes on intellectual functioning, mathematical ability, or upon the degree of personality conflicts.

Jack Fox tested Hubbard's thesis regarding recall of engrams and could not substantiate it.

The validity of these studies has been questioned by Dianetics advocates, who have criticized the qualifications and methodology of the authors. They certainly seem to have made little impact on either side of the debate; they have rarely been quoted in the scientific literature, and have been ignored entirely by the Church of Scientology.

Hubbard claimed, in an interview with the New York Times in November 1950, that "he had already submitted proof of claims made in the book to a number of scientists and associations. He added that the public as well as proper organizations were entitled to such proof and that he was ready and willing to give such proof in detail." Probably in fulfilment of this pledge, in January 1951 the Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation of Elizabeth, NJ published Dianetic Processing: A Brief Survey of Research Projects and Preliminary Results. This booklet, written by Dalmyra Ibanex, Gordon and Peggy Southon and Peggy Benton, provides the results of psychometric tests conducted on 88 people undergoing Dianetics therapy. It presents case histories and a number of X-ray plates to support claims that Dianetics had cured "aberrations" including manic depression, asthma, arthritis, colitis and "overt homosexuality". The report's subjects are not identified by name, but one of them is clearly Hubbard himself ("Case 1080A, R. L.").

The survey was included in editions of Hubbard's book Science of Survival until about the 1970s but has since been dropped. Its scientific validity was contested at the time. It was discussed in an article in the June/July 1951 issue of the Rhodomagnetic Digest, which expresses doubts about the validity of the psychometric tests used, the presentation of the results and the selection of the test subjects. It comments that the booklet "use unrecognized tests in an unorthodox way, the results being presented in a doubtful fashion."

The authors of the survey do not provide any details of their own qualifications, although they are described in Science of Survival as psychotherapists. They are clearly strong supporters of Dianetics, raising the question of possible bias (it certainly cannot be described as an independent report). Notably, they appear to ascribe all physical benefits to Dianetics without any consideration of whether other factors might have played a part; the report lacks any scientific controls, a key element of the scientific method.

Several other evaluations of the scientific claims of Dianetics have been written by scientists and academics from various fields. Hubbard's book on Dianetics attracted some highly critical reviews from science and medical writers and organisations. The American Psychological Association passed a resolution calling "attention to the fact that these claims are not supported by empirical evidence of the sort required for the establishment of scientific generalizations."

J.A. Winter, M.D., originally an associate of Hubbard and an early adopter of Dianetics, wrote an account of his personal positive experiences with Dianetics but offered no scientific substantiation, criticizing the Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation for failing to undertake "precise scientific research into the functioning of the mind". Also writing at the time, Don Fabun commented that "there do not seem to be any acceptable facts and figures to show the results of Dianetic processing. Like the famous "clears" -- who strangely enough are never available for public appearance nor for orthodox psychometric tests -- the facts behind Dianetics appear to remain in the realm of pure faith."

Dianetics and pseudoscience

Dianetics is regarded by mainstream science as a pseudoscience and is not accepted by the vast majority of scientists as a bona fide scientific theory, despite Hubbard's claims of scientific veracity. For a theory to qualify as scientific it must be:

Consistent (internally and externally)
Parsimonious (sparing in proposed entities or explanations, see Occam's Razor)
Useful (describes and explains observed phenomena)
Empirically testable & falsifiable (see Falsifiability)
Based upon multiple observations, often in the form of controlled, repeated experiments
Correctable & dynamic (changes are made as new data are discovered)
Progressive (achieves all that previous theories have and more)
Provisional or tentative (admits that it might not be correct rather than asserting certainty)

For any theory, hypothesis or conjecture to be considered scientific, it must meet most, but ideally all, of the above criteria. The fewer which are matched, the less scientific it is; and if it meets only a couple or none at all, then it cannot be treated as scientific in any meaningful sense of the word. Typical objections to defining Dianetics as science are that it lacks consistency, violates the principle of parsimony, is not falsifiable, is not empirically testable in many of its aspects, is not based upon multiple observations and is not correctable, dynamic, tentative or progressive.

Many scientific voices, from 1950 through to the present day, have criticized Dianetics as a classic pseudoscience Philosophy professor Robert Carroll points to a lack of scientific rigor and evidence:

What Hubbard touts as a science of mind lacks one key element that is expected of a science: empirical testing of claims. The key elements of Hubbard's so-called science don't seem testable, yet he repeatedly claims that he is asserting only scientific facts and data from many experiments. It isn't even clear what such "data" would look like. Most of his data is in the form of anecdotes and speculations ... Such speculation is appropriate in fiction, but not in science.

W. Sumner Davis similarly comments that

Dianetics is nothing more than an example of pseudoscience trying to legitimize itself... Hubbard, had he indeed been a scientist, would have known that truth is not built on axioms, and facts cannot be found from some a-priori knowledge. A true science is constructed on hypotheses, which are arrived at by the virtue of observed phenomena. Scientific knowledge is gained by observation and testing, not believing from some subconscious stipulation, as Hubbard would have us believe.

Modern cognitive science does not support Hubbard's concepts of engrams, mental image pictures and reactive minds. Unlike mainstream science, Dianetics does not appear to be correctable and dynamic. The original text of Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health has not been updated since Hubbard wrote it in 1950 (although Hubbard did develop Dianetics further in later years). Moreover, it is very unlikely that Dianetics will ever be modified as new data is discovered, even if that data definitively proves aspects of Dianetics to be incorrect. In a 1982 directive, the Church of Scientology instructed that "LRH ISSUES ARE TO BE LEFT INTACT AS ISSUED" and "no one except LRH" was to change or cancel his publications. As Hubbard died in 1986, the likelihood of this happening again seems fairly remote. The mere disproving of his ideas is not regarded as valid grounds for making a change: "the only occasion for any revision of an LRH issue is if a typographical error was found in the original." In this regard, Dianetics is perhaps closer in character to a belief system than a genuine science or even a pseudoscience.

Dianetics also does not appear to meet the criteria for scientific evidence used by most United States courts, the Daubert Standard. The Daubert Standard governs which evidence can be considered scientific in federal courts and most state courts. The four Daubert criteria are:

The theoretical underpinnings of the methods must yield testable predictions by means of which the theory could be falsified.
The methods should preferably be published in a peer-reviewed journal.
There should be a known rate of error that can be used in evaluating the results.
The methods should be generally accepted within the relevant scientific community.

Hubbard's engram concept may meet the first of the criteria but it is difficult to see how other ideas in Dianetics (such as the causal link between "aberrations" and physical ailments) could be tested. Dianetics certainly fails on the other criteria; its methods have never been published in a peer-reviewed journal, its rate of error is unknown (though Hubbard claimed that it was an "invariable cure") and its methods are not accepted within the mental health community. Other than some rebuffed submissions in 1950 and the two studies citied above, there is no indication that proponents of Dianetics have sought to engage with the scientific community to assess the validity of the concept.

History

Origins

Hubbard traced the origin of Dianetics to unpublished research that he claimed to have undertaken in the 1920s and 1930s, which culminated in the writing of a manuscript entitled Excalibur on the study of the mind. The manuscript was said to have been written in 1938 but was never published. However, Hubbard stated that most of what made up Excalibur had been released in his various published writings from the 1950s onwards.

Following the Second World War, in which Hubbard served in the United States Navy, he was admitted to the Oak Knoll Naval Hospital in San Diego. The Church of Scientology (and Hubbard himself) claims that this was due to his having been left "partially blind with injured optic nerves and lame from hip and back injuries". However, a medical examination performed in September 1945 records that he was suffering from poor eyesight (which was corrected with glasses) and a recurrent duodenal ulcer ; there is no record of any physical injuries in his medical files, which also specifically stated that he had suffered no combat injuries.

While at Oak Knoll, Hubbard claimed to have carried out research into endocrinology "to determine whether or not structure monitors function or function monitors structure ... using nothing but Freudian Psychoanalysis and using a park bench as a consulting room." He claimed that during his stay at the hospital - supposedly a year long but actually only three months according to his medical record - he spent a great deal of time in the hospital's library. He would certainly have been exposed there to the works of Sigmund Freud and other psychoanalysts, but claimed to have had a long-time knowledge of Freudian thought due to a childhood friendship with a doctor who had been a student of Freud.

The emergence of Dianetics

In January 1949, he wrote to his literary agent, Forrest J. Ackerman, to inform him that he was writing a book on the "cause and cure of nervous tension", which he was going to call either The Dark Sword or Excalibur or Science of the Mind. He was enthusiastic about the prospect, claiming that the book would have "more selling and publicity angles than any book of which I have ever heard." He announced his project to the general public in the same month, telling Writers' Markets and Methods magazine that he was working on a "book of psychology".

In April 1949, Hubbard wrote to the Gerontological Society at Baltimore City Hospital to inform them that he had "apparently made certain discoveries which seem to indicate they would have a definite effect on longevity." He stated that he was preparing a paper with the somewhat unwieldy title of Certain Discoveries and Researches Leading to the Removal of Early Traumatic Experiences Including Attempted Abortion, Birth Shock and Infant Illnesses and Accidents with an Examination of their Effects Physiological and Psychological and their Potential Influence on Longevity on the Adult Individual with an Account of the Techniques Evolved and Employed.

According to a June 1954 biographical note issued by the Hubbard Association of Scientologists, Hubbard's letter was "politely received" but the Society apparently declined to become involved with his work. He is said also to have written to the American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association. These letters, and their responses, have not been published, though Hubbard later said that they had been negative .

Some time apparently in the first half of 1949, Hubbard told his friend John W. Campbell, the editor of Astounding Science Fiction magazine and publisher of many of Hubbard's short stories, about the work that he had been doing on Dianetics. Campbell had been one of Hubbard's early test subjects and believed that his persistent sinusitis had been cured by Hubbard's techniques. He became an enthusiastic supporter of Hubbard's work. In a letter to one of Astounding's contributors, Jack Williamson, he wrote: "I know dianetics is one of, if not the greatest, discovery of all Man's written and unwritten history. It produces the sort of stability and sanity men have dreamed about for centuries."

In July 1949, Campbell wrote to one of Astounding's regular contributors, Dr. Joseph A. Winter, a medical doctor who lived in Michigan. Winter was intrigued by Campbell's claims about Hubbard's work:

With cooperation from some institutions, some psychiatrists, he has worked on all types of cases. Institutionalized schizophrenics, apathies, manics, depressives, perverts, stuttering, neuroses - in all, nearly 1000 cases. But just a brief sampling of each type; he doesn't have proper statistics in the usual sense. But he has one statistic. He has cured every patient he worked with. He has cured ulcers, arthritis, asthma.

Although Winter was initially skeptical, Hubbard wrote what he called "an operator's manual for your use" which convinced Winter that Dianetics had some promise. In October 1949, he travelled to Hubbard's home at Bay Head, New Jersey where he joined Hubbard and Campbell to work on the development of Dianetics, an event referred to elliptically by Hubbard in a letter published by the Church of Scientology ("there are a couple of writers staying here ... They just stopped by for dinner one night around the first of October."

Winter attempted to interest some medical colleagues and psychiatrists in Dianetics but elicited little interest. He suggested to Hubbard that he should try to publish an article on Dianetics to stimulate interest in his work. Perhaps mindful of the rejection of his earlier efforts, Hubbard told Winter that "the articles you suggest would be more acceptable coming from another pen than mine."

Accordingly, some time in November or December 1949, Winter wrote a paper "giving a brief resumé of the principles and methodology of dianetic therapy" which he submitted informally to an editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association. However, the editor told Winter that "the paper as written did not contain sufficient evidence of efficacy to be acceptable and was, moreover, better suited to one of the journals which dealt with psychotherapy." He revised the paper, added case histories provided by Hubbard, and submitted it to the American Journal of Psychiatry. However, it was again rejected on the grounds of insufficient evidence.

It is unclear whether Hubbard and Winter independently approached the two journals at different times, or whether there was just the one approach in 1949. Hubbard claims that in 1947 "it seemed that a public presentation of this material was in order and an effort was made to present it to the American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association." Other Church of Scientology sources give the date as 1948 and 1949.

According to the Church of Scientology, in 1948 Hubbard issued his early research in the form of a manuscript entitled Dianetics: The Original Thesis. It received a wider public release in 1951 and is now published as the book The Dynamics of Life. However, Hubbard himself said that the manuscript was issued in 1949 , . It is not clear what this manuscript originally contained - the original text is not available for comparison with the 1951 publication - but it may have comprised the "operator's manual" written by Hubbard for Winter. The dates given by Hubbard and Winter certainly coincide, and the "operator's manual" of mid-1949 is the first independently attested codification of Dianetics. Winter writes that he made a number of copies of it and passed them to friends and colleagues, and it would not have been surprising if Campbell had done the same. Hubbard later spoke of how he had "handed out copies in a hectographed, mimeographed way to people who were cursorily interested who wanted to know what I had been doing."

Dianetics in print

At the end of 1949, Hubbard and Campbell agreed that Dianetics would be announced through an article to be printed in Astounding the following May, which would be followed shortly afterwards by the publication of a full-length book. Campbell arranged for Hermitage House, a small New York medical and psychiatric textbook publisher, to publish the book.

Dianetics was trailed in "Terra Incognita: The Mind", an article by Hubbard that was published in the winter 1949-spring 1950 edition of The Explorers Journal. Dianetics was clearly not quite finished - at this stage, engrams were called comanomes, a neologism proposed by Winter that was later abandoned.

In April 1950, Hubbard, Campbell, Winter and several others established a Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation in Elizabeth, New Jersey to coordinate work related to the forthcoming publication. Hubbard wrote Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health around the same time, claiming to have taken only six weeks to do so (though according to another Scientology source he wrote all 180,000 words in only three weeks ).

Dianetics was launched in the May 1950 issue of Astounding (published in April 1950), and the book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health was published on 9 May 1950. It became an immediate best-seller, with the first run of 8,000 copies quickly selling out. Only two months after the book's publication, Newsweek magazine reported that over 55,000 copies had been sold and enthusiasts had established 500 Dianetics clubs across the United States. John W. Campbell reported in the August 1950 edition of Astounding Science Fiction that the magazine was receiving up to a thousand letters a week about Dianetics. Sales reached 150,000 copies by the end of the year.

The popularity of Dianetics was due to a number of factors. Campbell's endorsement was invaluable to its success. Astounding Science Fiction had over 150,000 readers, many of whom were familiar with Hubbard's earlier science fiction and had a strong interest in new scientific discoveries (according to Winter, 80% were college graduates). Among the wider population, Dianetics gained popularity as a cheaper, simpler and apparently more effective means of self-improvement than conventional psychotherapies. Hubbard's optimistic view that Dianetics could alleviate the Cold War climate of tension and fear also struck a chord. One of his supporters, Frederick Schuman, wrote in the New York Times that "History has become a race between Dianetics and catastrophe".

The success of Dianetics brought in a flood of money. Hubbard offered teaching courses for Dianetic "auditors" though the Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation, costing $500 per person. This bought four to six weeks of instruction, plus thirty-six hours of Dianetic therapy. The president of Hermitage House, the publisher of Dianetics, reported in the August 1950 issue of Astounding that the book was selling a thousand copies a day (at $4 each) and all 100 special leather-bound copies (at $25 each) had already sold, with all proceeds going to the Dianetic Foundation. Hubbard recruited his friend and fellow science fiction writer A. E. Van Vogt to act as the Foundation's treasurer, and five other Foundations were soon established in Washington, DC, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Honolulu. The scale of the Foundation's income at the time can be judged by the fact that its Los Angeles property was valued at $4.5 million.

Opposition to Dianetics

The scientific and medical communities were far less enthusiastic about Dianetics, which received a mixture of bemused, concerned and denunciatory reviews in the US media. Nobel-prize winning physicist I.I. Rabi, reviewing Dianetics for Scientific American, declared that "this volume probably contains more promises and less evidence per page than has any publication since the invention of printing." The Nation also pointed to the lack of documentation provided by Hubbard in Dianetics: "No case histories are offered to substantiate his claims, nor is there documentation of any kind to indicate that any previous thinker, medical or otherwise, ever made a significant contribution to the subject of human behavior." The New Republic noted that the publication of Dianetics had coincided with that of Worlds in Collision, a notorious work of pseudoscience by Immanuel Velikovsky, with which Dianetics shared the top of the best-seller lists. This, its writer said, illustrated "the most frightening proof of the confusion of the contemporary mind and its tendency to fall prey to pseudo-scientific concepts." Other writers expressed concern at the possible dangers of unskilled amateurs practising therapy on patients, and skepticism about Hubbard's claims that Dianetics could be effective in dealing with illnesses.

In September 1950, the American Psychological Association issued a resolution calling on psychologists not to use Hubbard's methods for treatment purposes unless and until they had been shown effective through scientific testing. In a number of localities, complaints were made against Dianetics practitioners for allegedly practising medicine without a license. This eventually prompted Dianetics advocates to disclaim any medicinal benefits in order to avoid regulation.

Hubbard later claimed that the United States Government, the Soviet Union and the American Communist Party had sought to take over Dianetics and had orchestrated opposition to it. He claimed that "just about the time hit the stands" (i.e. April-May 1950), a "very high-ranking officer" of the US Navy had approached him to sound him out about "using what you know about the mind to make people more suggestible." Hubbard was apparently able to avoid this by resigning from the Navy. However, his letter of resignation from the Navy, dated May 27, 1950, makes no mention of this; he said merely that he "sometimes must write on technical subjects and while these have no bearing on naval matters or government security of any kind I would feel much freer were I not a commissioned officer in the naval reserve."

In 1952, Hubbard claimed that the Soviet Union had also tried to co-opt him to develop Dianetics. He told the FBI in an interview that "the Soviets apparently realized the value of Dianetics because as early as 1938 an official of Amtorg , while at The Explorers Club in New York, contacted him to suggest that he go to Russia and develop Dianetics there." The FBI agent conducting the interview was not convinced, describing Hubbard as "a mental case."

Hubbard also claimed that the American Communist Party had sought to take over Dianetics, and blamed the hostile press coverage on a Communist plot. The Authors League of America, which represented American authors and playwrights, was "100 percent, almost, Communist Party card-carrying members." According to Hubbard,

These people in the early days of Dianetics said, "We can use Dianetics." They were all my friends. Everywhere I looked, every writer I knew who had ever been a member of the Communist Party was right there alongside of me pumping my hand, saying, "Good going, Ron. We knew you had it in you." ... We had the potential of an organization the influence of which could be used by another interest! And when they finally got it through their thick skulls in October of 1950 that I didn't care to have Dianetics and Scientology covertly used by any other organization on Earth for their own special purposes, Dianetics and Scientology in the public presses had it.

In later years, Hubbard decided that the psychiatric profession was the origin of all of the criticism of Dianetics, as (in his view) it secretly controlled the governments of the United States, the Soviet Union and "nearly every government in the world". This view is still put forward by the Church of Scientology, for instance in a 1993 speech by Church head David Miscavige:

But the whole world knows of Dianetics. It was the concern that this very popularity might occur that drove the psychs mad in 1950.

At stake were all of their vested interest dollars. How could they get research grants? Millions, or even billions - if the problems of the mind were already solved? And how could they hide the fact of LRH's discoveries if the whole country was talking about them? Their initial attacks have been mentioned over the years by us. First they got "technical reviews" by psychiatrists hatcheting Dianetics. They published these critical reviews in their psychiatric trade magazines ... Then they took these published reviews and handed them out to the press where they were promptly requoted as authority in magazines like "Slime" and "Tripe" .

Fragmentation and transformation

By the autumn of 1950, Dianetics was beginning to run into serious problems. Money was still coming in from book sales, lectures and auditor training, but financial controls seem to have been lax. Hubbard himself said that "We had taken in hundreds of thousands of dollars, all told, and it's something on the accounting system of dumping it all in a barrel outside the door and hauling the barrel down to a bank every once in a while - just grim, the accounting just horrible!"

One of those involved in Dianetics at the time, Helen O'Brien, claimed that a member of the Elizabeth, NJ Dianetic Foundation resigned after it emerged that only $20,000 of the Foundation's $90,000 income one month could be accounted for. Hubbard's treasurer, A. E. van Vogt, has said that Hubbard personally withdrew large sums from Foundation accounts, apparently without any prior notice or explanation of his purpose. He calculated that by November 1950 the six Foundations had spent around one million dollars and were more than $200,000 in debt. He attempted to rein in costs by cutting staff, but was overruled by Hubbard.

Matters were made worse by the Foundation's expensive research program, for which a 110-room building was bought on Rossmore Avenue, Los Angeles. Hubbard believed that a cocktail of benzedrine, vitamins and glutamic acid - which he termed GUK after the rifle cleaning fluid used by the US Marine Corps - would provide a chemical alternative to auditing. Winter writes that it proved a "dismal, expensive failure."

Disagreements had emerged over the direction of the Dianetic Foundation's work, and relations between the board members were becoming strained. Hubbard's interest in past lives was a particular cause of tension, as he noted in a lengthy footnote in his 1951 book Science of Survival:

The subject of past deaths and past lives is so full of tension that as early as last July (1950-Ed) the board of trustees of the Foundation sought to pass a resolution banning the entire subject. And I have been many times requested to omit any reference to these in the present work or in public for fear that a general impression would get out that Dianetics had something to do with spiritualism.

He later claimed that "The reason the first Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation had trouble was that its Board of Directors attempted to stop past lives from being run."

Winter recorded his dissatisfaction with what he regarded as a "divergen from my views as to what constituted a serious scientific organization." He took the view that "Foundation dianetics was becoming crystallized, ritualistic and sterile", characterized by a "none-too-subtle antagonism towards the medical profession in general and the psychiatric field in particular." He commented that "any attempts to force the medical profession to accept it solely on the basis of the affirmation, "It works!" and deriding those who request more conclusive proof, is more than likely to jeopardize whatever possible benefits there might be." Having been rebuffed in his attempts to steer the Foundation onto "a more reasoned and conservative basis", he resigned in October 1950.

Other members of the Foundation's board of directors also fell out with Hubbard. Art Ceppos, the publisher of Dianetics, also resigned at the same time as Winter and later published Winter's critical book on Dianetics. This breach led to problems in obtaining fresh copies of Dianetics, as a new publisher had to be found. Shortly afterwards, the general counsel of the Dianetic Foundation in Elizabeth contacted the FBI and alleged that Ceppos was a Communist sympathizer who had recently tried to get hold of the Foundation's mailing list of sixteen thousand names which would be "valuable to anyone interested in circulating Communist party literature".

John W. Campbell likewise became dissatisfied. He criticized Hubbard for "dogmatism and authoritarianism" after the latter began to insist that only a Hubbard-approved "Standard Procedure" of Dianetics be used. Methods that Hubbard had not approved were condemned as being dangerous "Black Dianetics." This was a marked break from Hubbard's previously liberal policy, in which he had rejected as illegitimate any attempt to monopolise Dianetics. Campbell resigned from the board in March 1951. Although he remained interested in Dianetics for several years afterwards, he eventually moved on to other causes.

A particularly serious breach occurred with Hubbard's wife Sara, the Foundation's librarian and formerly his personal auditor and research subject. Barbara Klowdan, his public relations assistant, described how Hubbard and his wife had both had affairs with other people as they became estranged from each other - Hubbard with Klowdan, and Sara with Miles Hollister, a Dianetics instructor in Los Angeles. Sara was suspended from the Foundation's board of directors and her official post. On March 3, 1951, Hubbard wrote to the FBI to denounce Sara and Hollister as "Communist Party members or suspects", describing Hollister as having a "broad forehead, rather Slavic."

Sara filed divorce papers on March 23, 1951 which attracted widespread media interest due to her claims of "systematic torture" allegedly suffered at Hubbard's hands. A few weeks later, Hubbard wrote to the FBI to accuse Sara of involvement in a supposed assassination attempt in which "I was knocked out, had a needle thrust into my heart to give it a jet of air to produce "coronary thrombosis" and was given an electric shock with a 110 volt current." Hubbard later characterized the suit as "a gal I wasn't even married to was suing me for divorce."

Hubbard appears to have believed that his organization was under sustained attack from Communist interests. From March 2, 1951, all employees of the Dianetic Foundations were to be "requested to sign a strong oath of loyalty to the U.S. government, a denial of Communism and that their fingerprints be taken and forwarded to the F.B.I." He asserted that Ceppos was "connected with Communists" and also claimed that Winter was a "psycho-neurotic discharged officer of the US Army Medical Corps and that Winter seemed to have Communist connections." He complained that "the Communist Party or members of the Communist Party have in the past year wiped out a half a million operation for me, have cost me my health and have considerably retarded material of interest to the United States Government."

Yet more financial problems were caused in January 1951 when the New Jersey Board of Medical Examiners instituted proceedings against the Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation in Elizabeth, accusing it of teaching medicine without a licence. This forced the foundation to close its doors, causing the proceedings to be vacated. Perhaps as a result of this lawsuit, the Foundation's creditors began to demand settlement of its outstanding debts, worsening its financial plight.

Dianetics in Kansas

A temporary respite was provided in April 1951 by Don Purcell, a millionaire Dianeticist from Wichita, Kansas. A Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation was established at Wichita with Purcell's financial backing. Purcell also funded the printing of a new edition of Dianetics and several new Dianetics books - Self Analysis, Science of Survival, Notes on the Lectures of L. Ron Hubbard, Advanced Procedure and Axioms and Child Dianetics - as well as a range of other Dianetics pamphlets and publications.

However, the Wichita Foundation soon ran into problems. The other Foundations collapsed under the weight of unpaid debts and creditors pursued the new Foundation, which was "consistently and continually hit by slopovers from the old Foundations, where the bookkeeping is bad". The income of the Wichita Foundation was far more modest than the earlier Foundations had enjoyed, illustrating how public interest in Dianetics had waned by this time. According to Helen O'Brien, who worked with Hubbard in Wichita, only 112 people attended the first major conference held at Wichita and only 51 students attended a subsequent lecture series in October 1951. Writing at the time, the science writer Martin Gardner observed that "the dianetics craze seems to have burned itself out as quickly as it caught fire".

The creditors caught up with the Wichita Foundation in early 1952 and forced it into bankruptcy. Hubbard sold his holdings to Purcell for a nominal sum and established a "Hubbard College" on the other side of Wichita, leaving Purcell to sort out the bankruptcy proceedings. The Purcell-run Foundation sent its members a set of accounts showing that it had earned $141,821 but was overspent by $63,222. Hubbard responded angrily, accusing Purcell of having been paid $500,000 by the American Medical Association to wreck Dianetics. He later claimed that Purcell had been funded by the Communist Party of America "to do in a Central Organization."

With the collapse of the Wichita Foundation, the remaining assets of the Foundation were put up for auction. They largely comprised of the copyright of all the tapes, books, techniques, processes and paraphernalia of Dianetics, including the name. Purcell bought the assets outright, but Hubbard's financial straits were not improved. One of his staff, James Elliot, sent out an appeal on his behalf: "Dianetics and Mr. Hubbard have been dealt a blow from which they cannot recover .... Somehow Mr. Hubbard must get funds to keep Dianetics from being closed down everywhere .... He is penniless." Elliot wrote of Hubbard's wish to establish a "free school in Phoenix for the rehabilitation of auditors." This was launched around April 1952 as the Hubbard Association of Scientologists; he could no longer use the name "Dianetics" as it no longer belonged to him.

However, he was unable to escape entirely the problems of the bankrupt Wichita Foundation; on December 16, 1952, he was arrested in the middle of a lecture for failing to return $9,000 withdrawn from the Wichita Foundation. He eventually settled the debt by paying $1,000 and returning a car that had been loaned by Purcell. Purcell finally tired of pursuing Hubbard over the bankruptcy and handed back the Dianetics copyrights in 1954.

From Dianetics to Scientology

Dianetics provided the seed from which the philosophical framework of Scientology grew. Scientologists refer to the book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health as "Book One". Hubbard himself regarded its publication as such an important event that he created his own calendar based on the publication date of Dianetics, dating his Scientology writings from that time. For instance, Hubbard uses "A.D. 13" to mean 1963 – literally "year 13 After Dianetics".

In 1952, Hubbard published a new set of teachings as "Scientology, a religious philosophy". Scientology did not replace Dianetics but extended it to cover new areas. The stated goal of Scientology is to fully rehabilitate the spiritual nature of an individual, including rehabilitating all abilities and realizing one's full potential. By contrast, the goal of Dianetics is to rid the individual of his reactive mind and become "Clear".

In 1978, Hubbard revised and to some extent relaunched Dianetics as "New Era Dianetics". This was supposed to achieve better results than the original Dianetics, and much more quickly; "Preclears who might have needed over 2,000 hours of auditing to achieve the highest results obtainable from 1950 technology might now achieve comparable gains in a tenth of that time with modern Dianetics and Scientology auditing."

Most Scientologists today regard both the original and New Era Dianetics techniques as valid, and view Dianetics as an introduction to Scientology. As of 2001, the Church of Scientology continued to run television advertisements promoting Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health. Time Magazine, in 1991, alleged that the Church asked its members to purchase large quantities of the book with their own money, or with money supplied by the Church, for the sole purpose of keeping the book on the New York Times bestseller list.

Notes

Winter, J.A. Dianetics: A Doctor's Report, p. 18 (Julian Press, 1987 reprint)
Hubbard borrowed the idea of an "engram": the term was said to have been adopted from the definition given in Dorland's Medical Dictionary, in which it is defined as a "definite and permanent trace left by a stimulus in the protoplasm of a tissue. In psychology it is the lasting trace left in the psyche by anything that has been experienced psychically; a latent memory picture."
Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health page 79 and Glossary
Hubbard, Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, p. 125. New Era Publications, Copenhagen (1988)
Hubbard, "Dianetics and Religion", Dianetic Auditor's Bulletin vol. 1 no. 4, October 1950
Hubbard, "Dianetics". Astounding Science Fiction, May 1950.
Letter from John W. Campbell, cited in Winter, p. 3 - "His approach is, actually, based on some very early work of Freud"
Joseph Breuer and Sigmund Freud, "Studies in Hysteria", Vol II of the Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud. Hogarth Press, London (1955).
Lee, John A. Sectarian Healers and Hypnotherapy, 1970, Ontario (Excerpt)
Fischer, Harvey Jay. "Dianetic therapy: an experimental evaluation. A statistical analysis of the effect of dianetic therapy as measured by group tests of intelligence, mathematics and personality." Abstract of Ph.D. thesis, 1953, New York University (Excerpt)
Fox, J.; Davis, A.E.; Lebovits, B. "An experimental investigation of Hubbard's engram hypothesis (dianetics)". Psychological Newsletter, New York University. 10 1959, 131-134
"Psychologists Act Against Dianetics", New York Times, September 9, 1950
Benton, P; Ibanex, D.; Southon, G; Southon, P. Dianetic Processing: A Brief Survey of Research Projects and Preliminary Results, Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation, 1951
Fabun, Don. "An Analysis of the Dianetics Foundation Report", Rhodomagnetic Digest, June/July 1951
Many of these are reproduced at http://www.xenu.net/archive/fifties/
"Psychologists Act Against Dianetics", New York Times, September 9, 1950
Winter, Dianetics: A Doctor's Report, p. 40
Fabun, "An Analysis of the Dianetics Foundation Report"
See e.g. Gardner, Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science; Bauer, Scientific Literacy and the Myth of the Scientific Method and Science Or Pseudoscience: Magnetic Healing, Psychic Phenomena, and Other Heterodoxies; Corsini et al, The Dictionary of Psychology.
Carroll, Robert T. "Dianetics", Skeptics Dictionary
Davis, W. Sumner. Just Smoke and Mirrors: Religion, Fear and Superstition in Our Modern World, Writers Club Press, 2001 (ISBN 0595265235)
"The Integrity of Source", Scientology Policy Directive 19 of July 7, 1982
Hubbard, "The Anatomy Of Thought". Hubbard Communication Office Policy Letter 26 April 1970R, revised 15 March 1975.
L. Ron Hubbard, a Profile. L. Ron Hubbard Library, 1995
"Report of medical survey", September 10, 1945.
"Report of physical examination", September 19, 1945.
Hubbard, "The Story of Dianetics & Scientology", 1958
"L. Ron Hubbard: Early Studies of the Mind"
Russell Miller, Bare Faced Messiah, p. 144. Joseph, London (1988)
"Letters from the Birth of Dianetics - L. Ron Hubbard - The Dianetics Letters", Church of Scientology International.
"Ron the Philosopher: The Birth of Dianetics", Church of Scientology International
Hubbard, "My Only Defense For Having Lived", 1966.
Jack Williamson, Wonder's Child: my life in science fiction. Bluejay Books, New York (1984)
Winter, Dianetics: A Doctor's Report, p. 5
Hubbard, letter to Russell Hays of November 14, 1949
Winter, Dianetics: A Doctor's Report, p. 8
Winter, Dianetics: A Doctor's Report, p. 18
Hubbard, "Universes", lecture of April 6, 1954
Hubbard, "Dianetics: its background". HCO Bulletin of May 22, 1969
Hubbard, "Auditor attitude and the bank", lecture of October 10, 1969
Hubbard, "How we have addressed the problem of the mind", lecture of July 4, 1957
Hubbard, "Terra Incognita: The Mind"
"L.R.H. Biography", Sea Org Flag Information Letter 67, October 31, 1977
Hubbard, Child Dianetics, p. 178. Publications Organization Worldwide, Edinburgh (1968 edition)
"BOOKS Industry: Best Seller", Newsweek, No. 36, August 1950
"Dianetics: Science or Hoax?", Look, December 5, 1950
Miller, Bare Faced Messiah p. 166
"The Dianetics Craze", The New Republic, August 14, 1950
Isaac Isidor Rabi, Review of Dianetics, Scientific American, January 1951
Hubbard, "The National Academy of American Psychology", lecture of Dec 31, 1957
Hubbard, letter of resignation from the US Navy, May 27, 1950
US Govt memo 62-116151-70, March 7, 1951
Letter in FBI files, March 10, 1951
Hubbard, "Final Lecture", lecture of November 8, 1959
Hubbard, "Ron's Journal 67", taped message of September 20, 1967
David Miscavige, speech to the International Association of Scientologists, October 8, 1993
Hubbard, "Review of progress of Dianetics and dianetic business", lecture of 25 February 1952
A.E. van Vogt interview with Russell Miller, quoted in Miller, Bare Faced Messiah p. 166
Dianetics and the Professions, A.E. van Vogt, 1953
Forrest Ackerman interview with Russell Miller, quoted in Miller, Bare Faced Messiah p. 173
Winter, Dianetics: A Doctor's Report p. 190
Hubbard, Science of Survival, footnote p. 61. Hubbard College of Scientology, East Grinstead (1967 ed.)
Hubbard, Dianetics Today, p. 353. Church of Scientology of California, Los Angeles (1975 ed.)
Winter, Dianetics: A Doctor's Report pp. 190-191
Letter to Director FBI from SAC Newark, March 21, 1951
Campbell, letter in The Arc Light, 25 (May 1952), pp. 6-8.
Hubbard, letter to FBI of March 3, 1951
"Dianetics Inventor Sued for Divorce, Wife's Complaint Charges He Subjected Her To 'Scientific Torture Experiments'", Los Angeles Times, April 24, 1951
Hubbard, letter to FBI of May 14, 1951
Hubbard, "SOP 5 long form step III - spacation", lecture of January 19, 1953
Memo from F. J. Baumgardner to M.H. Holm, March 7, 1951
Hubbard, letter to FBI of May 14, 1951
Bulletin of the Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation, Elizabeth, NJ. January 1951
Hubbard, "Review of progress of Dianetics and dianetic business", lecture of 25 February 1952
O'Brien, Helen. Dianetics in Limbo. Whitmore, Philadelphia (1966)
Gardner, Martin. Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science. 1952
Purcell circular letter of May 21, 1952
Hubbard, "Anatomy of the Theta Body", lecture of March 1952
Hubbard, "E-meter", lecture of May 19, 1961
Elliot, James. Circular letter of April 21, 1952
Atack, Jon. "A Piece of Blue Sky", p. 135. Lyle Stuart, London (1988)
"Dianetics and Scientology Organizations United Again", The Journal of Scientology, issue 36-G, 1954
"About New Era Dianetics Auditing"
Behar, Richard. "The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power", Time, May 6, 1991

References

Atack, Jon: A Piece of Blue Sky, Lyle Stuart, London, 1988
Benton, P; Ibanex, D.; Southon, G; Southon, P. Dianetic Processing: A Brief Survey of Research Projects and Preliminary Results, Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation, 1951
Breuer J, Freud S, "Studies in Hysteria", Vol II of the Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud (Hogarth Press, London, 1955).
Carroll, Robert T: 'Dianetics', Skepdics Dictionary
Fischer, Harvey Jay: "Dianetic therapy: an experimental evaluation. A statistical analysis of the effect of dianetic therapy as measured by group tests of intelligence, mathematics and personality. " Abstract of Ph.D. thesis, 1953, New York University
Fox, Jack et al: An Experimental Investigation of Hubbard's Engram Hypothesis (Dianetics) in Psychological Newsletter, 1959, 10 131-134
Freeman, Lucy: "Psychologists act against Dianetics", New York Times, September 9, 1950
Gardner, Martin: "Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science, 1957, Chapter 22, Dianetics
Hayakawa, S. I.: "From Science-Fiction to Fiction-Science," in ETC: A Review of General Semantics, Vol. VIII, No. 4. Summer, 1951
Hubbard, L. Ron:

"Anatomy of the Theta Body", lecture of March 1952
"The Anatomy of Thought". Hubbard Communication Office Policy Letter 26 April 1970R, revised 15 March 1975
"Auditor attitude and the bank", lecture of October 10, 1969
Child Dianetics, p. 178. Publications Organization Worldwide, Edinburgh (1968 edition)
"Dianetics", Astounding Science Fiction, May 1950
"Dianetics: its background". HCO Bulletin of May 22, 1969.
Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health (New Era Publications, 1988)
Dianetics Today, Church of Scientology of California (1975 ed.)
"E-meter", lecture of May 19, 1961
"Final Lecture", lecture of November 8, 1959
"How we have addressed the problem of the mind", lecture of July 4, 1957
"My Only Defense For Having Lived", 1966.
"Review of progress of Dianetics and dianetic business", lecture of 25 February 1952
"Ron's Journal 67", taped message of September 20, 1967
Science of Survival, Hubbard College of Scientology (1967 ed.)
"SOP 5 long form step III - spacation", lecture of January 19, 1953
"The Story of Dianetics & Scientology", 1958
"Terra Incognita: The Mind"
"Universes", lecture of April 6, 1954

Lee, John A.: Sectarian Healers and Hypnotherapy, 1970, Ontario (Excerpt)
Miller, Russell: Bare-Faced Messiah, 1987
Miscavige, David: Speech to the International Association of Scientologists, October 8, 1993
O'Brien, Helen: Dianetics in Limbo. Whitmore, Philadelphia, 1966
Streissguth, Thomas: Charismatic Cult Leaders. The Oliver Press, Inc, 1995
van Vogt, A.E.: Dianetics and the Professions, 1953
Williamson, Jack: Wonder's Child: my life in science fiction. Bluejay Books, New York, 1984
Winter, J.A.: A Doctor's Report on DIANETICS Theory and Therapy, 1951

Texts by Hubbard

1938 Excalibur(The Church of Scientology says this was written at this point, though never published whole, ). From Hubbard Communication Office Policy Letter 26 April 1970R revised 15 March 1975, which appears in The Management Series Volume 1, page 3 (Bridge Publications, Inc. ISBN 0884046729)
1949 Terra Incognita: The Mind, an article originally in The Explorers Journal magazine, winter 1949/spring 1950 edition. Republished in The Technical Bulletins of Dianetics and Scientology volume I, page 4, published by Bridge Publications, Inc. ISBN 088404475 and available online.
1951 Dianetics: The Original Thesis, Bridge Publications, ISBN 088404002X. Republished in 1983 under a new title - The Dynamics of Life - by Bridge Publications ISBN 0884043436.
Apr 1950 Dianetics: The Evolution of a Science was first published as an article and published Sept 1955 as a hardbound book. Today it is published by Bridge Publications ISBN 1403105448.
May 1950, Dianetics, the Modern Science of Mental Health. Today published by Bridge Publications ISBN 0884044165.
1951 Notes on the Lectures of L. Ron Hubbard was published. Last published by Bridge Publications ISBN 088404422X.
June 1951 Science of Survival: Simplified, Faster Dianetic Techniques was published as a limited edition. Title was changed to Science of Survival: Prediction of Human Behavior and published Aug 1951. Today published by Bridge Publications ISBN 0884044181.
Aug 1951 Self Analysis was published. Today published by Bridge Publications ISBN 0884044491.
Oct 1951 The Dianetics Axioms was published (can be viewed at the Library of Congress). Today those axioms are not published by themselves but included in other books.
Oct 1951 Child Dianetics, Dianetic Processing for Children was published. Hubbard wrote an introduction Aug 1951, about the time it was being typeset. Today published by Bridge Publications ISBN 0884044211.
Nov 1951 Advanced Procedure and Axioms was published. Today published by Bridge Publications ISBN 8773366048.
Dec 1951 Handbook for Preclears was published. Today published by Bridge Publications ISBN 0884044203.
1954 Dianetics 55! was published. Today published by Bridge Publications ISBN 0884044173.
1975 Dianetics Today was published by Bridge Publications ISBN 0884040364.

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