Inside Scientology (57 page)

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"I have high hopes of smashing":
Letter from Hubbard to Polly Hubbard, 1938.
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"We were all exploring":
Jack Williamson,
Wonder's Child,
p. 131.

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"Given one slim fact":
Hubbard, "Search for Research,"
www.lronhub bard.org
.
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"Some thought him a Fascist":
De Camp, "Elron of the City of Brass," and
The Science Fiction Handbook,
p. 94.
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"offer my services in whatever":
Letter from Hubbard to the War Department, September 1, 1939.

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with a propensity for having:
Notice of Hubbard's posting to U.S. Naval Training School (Military Government), January 17, 1945,
www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Cowen/warhero/1944/441004B.gif
.
"The Great Era of Adventure":
Hubbard, "A First Word on Adventure."

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"conjured into existence":
Carey McWilliams,
Southern California: An Island in the Sun,
p. 134.

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"Do what thou wilt":
Aleister Crowley,
The Book of the Law,
p. 9.

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"He was a fascinating storyteller":
Russell Miller's interview with Nieson Himmel, August 14, 1986,
www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Library/Shelf/miller/interviews/himmel.htm
.
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"From some of his experiences":
Letter from Parsons to Aleister Crowley, January 1946, cited in John Carter,
Sex and Rockets: The Occult World of Jack Parsons,
p. 106.

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"the most profitable ecclesiastic":
H. L. Mencken,
The American Mercury,
April 1928.
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"good friend":
Hubbard, "Conditions of Space/Time/Energy," Philadelphia Doctorate Course cassette tape #18 5212C05.

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"crippled and blinded":
Hubbard, "My Philosophy," 1965; also Hubbard,
Ron—Letters and Journals,
published by the Church of Scientology, 1997.
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No evidence has been found:
The Scientology researcher Chris Owens has written extensively on Hubbard's war record, using Hubbard's navy records and other data acquired through the Freedom of Information Act. Most of his findings are contained in the e-book
Ron the War Hero: L. Ron Hubbard and the U.S. Navy, 1941–50,
www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Cowen/warhero/contents.htm
.
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"Have served at sea":
Telegram from Hubbard to Chief of U.S. Naval Personnel, October 12, 1945,
www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Cowen/war hero/1945/451012.gif
.

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"flood of copy":
Letter from Hubbard to agent Lurton Blassingame, December 29, 1945, as cited in
Ron: Journals and Letters
.
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"capabilities and crafts":
Parsons v. Hubbard and Northrup,
Dade County, Florida, July 11, 1946, as cited in George Pendle,
Strange Angel,
p. 267.
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"writing material":
Letter from Hubbard to Chief of Naval Personnel, file number 113392, April 1, 1946, as cited in Pendle,
Strange Angel,
p. 268.

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"near mental and financial collapse":
Letter from Parsons to Aleister Crowley, 1947, as cited in Kenneth Grant,
The Magical Revival,
p. 168.
"broke, working the poor-wounded":
Letter from De Camp to Isaac Asimov, August 27, 1946, as cited in Pendle,
Strange Angel,
p. 271.

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quietly writing a series: Hubbard's affirmations have been a point of controversy since they were revealed during the 1984 Armstrong case. During his trial, Armstrong read portions of them into the record, and the Church of Scientology authenticated them. More than fifteen years later, in 2000, Armstrong received an e-mailed copy of the affirmations, which he posted on his website,
www.gerryarmstrong.org
, vouching for the authenticity of the document. "I don't have any desire to profit monetarily by posting Hubbard's unpublished affirmations," he noted. "My desire is that these writings help everyone, Scientologist and wog [non-Scientologist], to make informed and better choices about L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology."
Hubbard's affirmations have been a point of controversy since they were revealed during the 1984 Armstrong case. During his trial, Armstrong read portions of them into the record, and the Church of Scientology authenticated them. More than fifteen years later, in 2000, Armstrong received an e-mailed copy of the affirmations, which he posted on his website,
www.gerryarmstrong.org
, vouching for the authenticity of the document. "I don't have any desire to profit monetarily by posting Hubbard's unpublished affirmations," he noted. "My desire is that these writings help everyone, Scientologist and wog [non-Scientologist], to make informed and better choices about L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology."

2. Dianetics

For the story of the rise and fall of the Dianetics movement, I relied primarily on Helen O'Brien's insider account,
Dianetics in Limbo,
as well as Dr. Joseph A. Winter's
A Doctor's Report on Dianetics
and Martin Gardner's
Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science,
all cited in the bibliography. Of these three, O'Brien's offers the best personal account of Hubbard's movement, Winter's book provides a more critical analysis, and Gardner's book takes the position of a skeptic. Unless otherwise cited, all references to Winter, including quotations, come from
A Doctor's Report;
all references to Helen O'Brien come from
Dianetics in Limbo,
as do quotations. The account of the Shrine Auditorium event draws from Gardner's
Fads and Fallacies
and from Russell Miller's
Barefaced Messiah.

For general historical and biographical information on Hubbard, I relied upon Atak's
A Piece of Blue Sky
and Miller's
Barefaced Messiah,
as well as Sara Northrup's account of her marriage as told to the Los Angeles Superior Court during her 1951 divorce proceedings and to the writer and former Scientologist Bent Corydon for his book
L. Ron Hubbard: Messiah or Madman?,
written with Brian Ambry.

For correspondence from Hubbard, I relied on scans of original letters published by the Church of Scientology International at several websites, notably "Ron the Philosopher: The Birth of Dianetics," which is published at
www.ronthephilosopher.org
. I also received assistance from Gerry Armstrong and Caroline Letkeman, who have published many of Hubbard's letters, speeches, and other communiqués on their website Refund and Reparation (
www.carolineletkeman.org
).

This chapter also contains numerous statistics and notes on psychiatry and psychotherapy during the 1950s and its role in American society. Unless noted, these come from
The Collected Works of C. G. Jung;
Morton Hunt's
The Story of Psychology;
Lauren Slater's
Opening Skinner's Box;
Jack El-Hai's
The Lobotomist:
A Maverick Medical Genius and His Tragic Quest to Rid the World of Mental Illness;
Stephen Whitfield's
The Culture of the Cold War;
and Hugh Urban's article "Fair Game: Secrecy, Security, and the Church of Scientology in Cold War America."

In addition, I relied on a tremendous number of newspaper and magazine stories from the 1950s, notably those that appeared in
Time, Newsweek,
and
Look
magazines, all of which have been cited below or in the bibliography.

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"rape women without":
Letter from Hubbard to Forrest Ackerman, January 13, 1949, carolineletkeman.org/sp/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=387&Itemid=116.
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Hubbard offered the APA:
Letter from Hubbard to the American Psychological Association, April 13, 1949,
www.ronthephilosopher.org/phlspher/page16.htm
.
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The society turned him down:
Hubbard also wrote to the American Medical Association, the American Gerontological Association, and the American Psychiatric association, with a similar offer to share his research. He later maintained that the AMA responded with a single word—"Why?"—and that the APA wrote him a curt response: "If it amounts to anything I am sure we will hear of it in a couple of years." From "Ron the Philosopher: The Birth of Dianetics,"
www.ronthephilosopher.org
, by the Church of Scientology International.

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"My response to this information":
Joseph Winter,
A Doctor's Report on Dianetics Theory and Therapy,
www.xenu.net/archive/fifties/e510000.htm
.

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"Many traumata were so unimportant":
C. G. Jung: Collected Works,
volume 4:
Freud and Psychoanalysis
(1961), "Some Crucial Points in Psychoanalysis," from the Jung-Loy Correspondence, paragraph 582.
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"cures and cures without failure":
Hubbard,
Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health [DMSMH],
p. 482.
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Hundreds of people:
In his original article, "Dianetics," published in the May 1950 issue of
Astounding Science Fiction,
Hubbard wrote that "to date, over two hundred patients have been treated; of those two hundred, two hundred cures have been obtained."
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about six thousand psychiatrists:
Albert Maisel, "Dianetics: Science or Hoax?"
Look
magazine, December 5, 1950.
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Only six hundred or so:
Morton Hunt,
The Story of Psychology,
p. 660. This number accounts for "medical" analysts, meaning licensed physicians with psychoanalytic training. In addition, Hunt notes there were "about 500 lay analysts in the country and perhaps a thousand in training in some twenty institutes for physician analysts and a dozen for lay analysts."

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"The trail is blazed":
Hubbard,
DMSMH,
p. 1.

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"You are beginning an adventure":
Ibid., p. 4.
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"empirical evidence of the sort":
Lucy Freeman, "Psychologists Act Against Dianetics,"
New York Times,
September 9, 1950.
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twenty to thirty:
Hubbard,
DMSMH,
p. 198.

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"poor man's psychoanalysis":
"Poor Man's Psychoanalysis,"
Newsweek,
October 16, 1950. The article, addressing the medical community's view of Dianetics, also makes the point that while most physicians "maintain their haughty silence, the dianetics vogue flourishes."
"lunatic revision of Freudian psychology":
Williamson,
Wonder's Child,
p. 183.
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"I considered it gibberish":
Isaac Asimov,
In Memory Yet Green,
p. 587.
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"any engram command":
Hubbard,
DMSMH,
p. 494.

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A five-week course, priced:
All information on prices is derived from "Dianetics: Science or Hoax?"
Look
magazine, December 5, 1950; see also Williamson,
Wonder's Child,
p. 84. The description of the five-week course at the Elizabeth Foundation is drawn from
Look
as well as from "After Hours,"
Harper's,
June 1951.
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A one-on-one session: Look
magazine, December 5, 1950, notes that Dianetics sessions started at $25 per hour; a typical psychiatrist's fee at the time, the article noted, started at $15 per hour.
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"fifteen minutes of Dianetics":
Williamson,
Wonder's Child,
p. 84.

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"a personality, a national celebrity":
Los Angeles Daily News,
September 6, 1950, as cited in Russell Miller,
Barefaced Messiah,
p. 162.
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"full and perfect recall":
Ibid., p. 165.
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"I thought he was a great man":
Ibid., pp. 182–83.

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"You could practically see the AMA":
Helen O'Brien,
Dianetics in Limbo,
p. 8.
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"People had breakdowns":
Miller,
Barefaced Messiah,
p. 169.

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"Looking back, it is hard":
Ibid., p. 10.
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"I became a Dianetic preclear":
Ibid., p. 12.
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"It nearly floored my auditor":
Ibid., p. 15.
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"The violence of that sight":
Ibid., pp. 19–20.

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"I never was the same again":
Ibid., p. 20.
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Sara Hubbard would later estimate:
Sara Northrup Hubbard v. L. Ron Hubbard,
filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, April 23, 1951.
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One official of the Elizabeth:
O'Brien,
Dianetics in Limbo,
p. 27.
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By the end of 1950:
Atack,
A Piece of Blue Sky,
p. 118.

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"The tidal wave of popular interest":
O'Brien,
Dianetics in Limbo,
p. vii.

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"The only thing I ever saw":
Ibid., p. 33.
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The New Jersey Board: Bulletin of the Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation,
Elizabeth, NJ, January 1951;
Elizabeth Daily Journal,
January 15, 1951, and March 28, 1951.
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the head of the famous Menninger:
In the
Look
article, which compared "dianetic hocus-pocus" to voodoo, Dr. Will Menninger said of Dianetics: "It can potentially do a great deal of harm. It is obvious that the mathematician-writer has oversimplified the human personality, both as to its structure and function. He has made inordinate and very exaggerated claims in his results." In addition, Dr. Jack A. Dunagin, of the Menninger Foundation, made the point that while patients may experience some temporary relief, "the greatest harm to a person would come, not because of the vicious nature of dianetic therapy, but because ... it will lead them away from treatment which they may badly need."
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resigned from the foundation:
Another reason Winter resigned was his frustration that no research was being done at the foundation. Ceppos joined him as support. Campbell, however, did seem to cite money as a key concern. According to Russell Miller (
Barefaced Messiah,
p. 181), "In Campbell's view, Hubbard had become impossible to work with and was responsible for the ruinous finances and complete disorganization throughout the Dianetics movement."
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He also accused Ceppos:
Letter to the director of the FBI from the special agent in charge of its Newark field office, March 21, 1951, FBI file #100,
www.xenu.net/archive/FBI/table.html
.
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in 1951, Hubbard: Letter from Hubbard to the director of the FBI, Washington, D.C., March 3, 1951, FBI file #89.
Letter from Hubbard to the director of the FBI, Washington, D.C., March 3, 1951, FBI file #89.