Scientology: The Art of L. Ron Hubbard

THERE ARE many people in the United States today who seek to develop a scientific approach to mental health. These are the people who are appalled at the futility, if not the evil, of Western psychotherapy, who admire the way Freud approached the human mind but not the results of his study. Although R. D. Laing is the current figure who represents this trend in the academic community, less esoteric and less controversial figures have developed their own theories in the past several decades. Harvard Square, the homing ground for religious drug use, yoga, mysticism, hypnosis, and the occult sciences, appears to be a vital area for those concerned with the ideal union of humanitarian philosophy and scientific technology.

You've already seen people in the Square handing out invitations to free lectures on Dianetics and Scientology. Dianetics is the forerunner of Scientology, a study of the mind which supposedly can free one of all conflicts and psychosomatic illnesses. Scientology is the philosophy, or rather the cosmology, formulated for the multitudes of new beings cleared by Dianetics procession. Both systems are the product of the mind of one "man," L. Ron Hubbard.

My interest in this cult began after a close friend of mine became disturbingly fanatic about it and began spewing forth a most incredible stream of theories and arcane terminology. All of which are purportedly based upon painstaking "scientific" research. "Thus, along with science, Scientology can achieve positive invariable results," writes L. Ron Hubbard. "Scientology can change intelligence upward at the rate of one point per hour." Hubbard continues, "The amount of benefit to be gained from Dianetics exceeded anything that Man had ever been able to do for anybody in the history of the human race." Finally, "Scientology is the most vital movement on Earth today."

These claims struck me as extravagant. I realized that L. Ron Hubbard must be either an extraordinary scientist or a flaming charlatan. Let me say now that I lean toward the latter view; but nevertheless, the L. Ron Hubbard trip is both a fantastic personal story and a sobering barometer of our society's fragmentation. For a person must have a desperate sense of alienation and powerlessness to subordinate himself to such an ultra chauvinist, pyramidal organization, such an elitist hierarchy with Hubbard at the summit.

"Probably no philosopher of modern times has had the popularity and appeal of Hubbard or such startling successes within his own lifetime. And Mankind has had no better friend." So ends the standard short biography of Hubbard found in nearly every Scientology publication. Large photographs of the Founder are hung in most Scientology centers. Hubbard divides his time today between a mansion in England and a ship in the Mediterranean, where he is supposedly conducting research. There is reason to believe that he is also making a fortune out of his mushrooming empire-it was reported in the Aug. 23, 1968 issue of Time that he has deposited over $7 million in numbered Swiss bank accounts.

Other interesting data from the official biography: "Hubbard was born in Tilden, Nebraska, March 13, 1911, the only child of Commander H. R. Hubbard, U. S. N., and Dora May Hubbard. He studied Science and Mathematics at George Washington, graduated from Colombian College. He attended Princeton University . . . He wrote and published over 15 million words. . . before WWH. During that war, he served as a commander of corvettes and was extensively decorated. Crippled and blind at the end of the war, he resumed his studies of philosophy and by his discoveries recovered so fully that he was reclassified in 1949 for full combat duty. It is a matter of medical record that he has twice been pronounced dead and that in 1950 he was given a perfect score on mental and physical fitness reports. . . Hubbard has a lovely wife, Mary Sue, and four charming children."

There are several distortions in the official information which deserve comment. Lafayette Ronald Hubbard never graduated from either George Washington or Colombian College. He attended George Washington from Sept. 1930 to May 1932, but received no degrees. He never even officially enrolled in Colombian College. He did attend Princeton, as a Navy Lieutenant during World War II-the only course he took, though, was a three-month Military Government course. Hubbard claims to be a nuclear physicist, but the closest he came in the academic world was the George Washington School of Engineering. He also claims to have a Ph. D. in Philosophy, awarded from a school called Sequoia in California. All clues indicate that Sequoia was the name of the Scientology Center in Los Angeles in the middle 50's, and that Hubbard awarded himself the degree. (Sequoia is not accredited by the state of California. Among its faculty, listed as Professor of Scientology, was L. Ron Hubbard.) Lastly, L. Ron's happy marriage is his third; the first two ended in divorce. His second wife charged that he subjected her to "beatings and torture" and she said that a psychiatrist had told her that Hubbard suffered from "paranoid schizophrenia." Hubbard countered, charging her with "gross neglect of duty" and he won a divorce from her.

In 1950, he published Dianctics-The Modern Science of Mental Health, which stayed on the N. Y. Times bestseller list for six months. For Scientologists, the year 1970 is A. D. 20 (After Dianetics). In this book, he outlined the essential details of Dianetics processing-called auditing-along with a hint of the collaborate levels of spiritual existence attainable, levels which have been developed more fully in Scientology. (And are still being developed-Hubbard continues announcing new levels every so often.)

To fully appreciate the tenor of Hubbard's writings, we must remember that he is a former science fiction writer. His effort to legitimize his teachings by alluding to "scientific research" is typical of his whole approach: in this age of technology, people will automatically accept authoritative statements, supplemented by an extensive vocabulary of terms with a sci-fi flavor. There is even a Scientology abridged dictionary.

Hubbard began this theory with a few fundamental concepts. The goal of Diabetics is to go clear, that is , to be completely free of subconscious memories and thus to be at cause (self-determined) over one's environment. You see, the human mind has two parts, each with their respective memory banks: the analytical mind and the reactive mind. The former is rational (in fact, Hubbard compares it to a perfect computer); the latter is subconscious, operating solely on a stimulus-response basis. It records engrams, or painful memories, which are subject to constant re-stimulation. These engross carry an electrical charge, which is removed by the auditing process. An essential fixture of auditing is the E-meter, a crude form of lie detector with two tin cans, attached by wires to a meter. The pre-clear holds the cans in his hands and the meter measures electrical resistance, based supposedly upon the charge of certain memories, but in fact based simply on galvanic skin response (how tightly one squeezes, sweating, etc.) The auditor skillfully guides the pre-clear through various traumatic memories until their charge is blown off and all anxiety is removed. There are six grades of release before one reaches Clear. Becoming a Clear is quite an accomplishment; there are only some 2500 Clears in the world. Moreover, it costs a minimum of $4,000 to reach Clear.

The Dec. 1968 issue of Today's Health contained an article about a man who had spent $28,000 on Diabetics and was still not Clear. Obviously, the real or imagined dividends of processing are made highly desirable; one is forced to marvel at the confidence Hubbard inspires. Consider his description of being a Clear: "Compared to a homo-sapiens, homo novice is very high and god-like." But, "compared to a truly self-determined being, homo novis is an ant ready to die under anybody's misstep." Ah, so Clear is only a beginning. After Clear, one begins work on becoming an Operating Thetan. Of course there are six or seven levels of O. T.'s, too.

AFTER Dianctics became a surprise best seller in 1950, Hubbard set up Dianctics centers in several cities. Determining the status of Dianctics and Scientology as either a religion or a business enterprise has been a perpetual problem for the U. S. Government. In the beginning, practitioners were called "ministers" and were or-damned to perform weddings and funerals. For a time, some Scientology centers did receive some tax-exemption, although none do now. However, there is a court case pending between Scientology and the Internal Revenue Service, over the issue of back taxes. It appears that Scientology will continue to enjoy the status of a religion, but it is unlikely that it will be tax-exempt since it definitely isn't a non-profit organization.

In 1956, there was a disgraceful episode involving bogus medicine. A case of transparent quackery, Dianetics organizations were marketing a "Special Anti-Radiation Compound" (also good for incipient cancer) at the height of the A-bomb scare of the 50's. The tablets, called Dianazene, were seized by the Food and Drug Administration and found to contain only vitamins and minerals-certainly not a sufficient defense against cancer or radioactivity. Apparently, however, little came of the affair and Dianazene hasn't been heard of again.

In 1963, the F. D. A seized 100 E-meters, and brought legal action against Dianetics for "false and misleading claims." After a long case, the E-meter was found guilty in 1967. But in Feb. 1969 a Court of Appeals reversed the conviction, ruling that the E-meter was an integral part of the cult's religious practices. On the basis of that decision, Scientology has established itself as a bona-fide religion. However, advertisements for the E-meter now include a note in fine print saying, "The E-meter is not intended or effective for the diagnosis, treatment or prevention of any disease." Yet Hubbard's writings still manage to imply miracle cures: "You use Dianetics much the way you would use any remedy. When a fellow is burned, you audit out the burn. When a woman loses a loved one, you audit out the loss." Even germ-based diseases such as tuberculosis are said to respond to auditing.

Hubbard's organization wasn't treated so well in other countries. England refused for a while to admit foreigners coming for upper-level courses. South Africa and Rhodesia refused to admit Hubbard. The state of Victoria, Australia, has outlawed Scientology altogether. Further investigations are pending in New Zealand and England.

Dianetics began losing popularity after the initial excitement caused by the book in 1950. Hubbard shrewdly chose to shift the emphasis from psychomatic healing (more fitting the mood of the 50's) to spiritual elevation, the obsession of a more spaced-out age. So in 1952, he renamed his movement Scientology. It was a wise decision, because the "truths" of Scientology are even less accessible to objective scrutiny than were the techniques of Dianetics. Now Hubbard flatly declares that Dianetics is merely training, a preparation for the cosmic quest of Thetanship, and Scientology.

READING the literature of Scientology, one appreciates the grandeur and intricacy of Hubbard's worldview. No longer is he offering a theory of electromagnetic memory units, complete with pseudo-scientific jargon. Now-now, we are tantalized by visions of super-beings who can perform miracles, travel without regard for space or time, direct energy flows of colossal potency, and who act out an inter-galactic drama complete with telepathy, wave guns, force fields, treachery, annihilation, and enslavement of entire planets and species.

The element of paranoia here is an integral facet of Scientology consciousness. We have the answer. They're trying to suppress us. (Anyone opposed to Scientology is a Suppressive Person.) L. Ron Hubbard's breakthroughs in the field of electronic wave theory must be kept secret, for once the vital wave lengths of the Thetans are known, any despot could jam the signal, so to speak.

Most despised by Hubbard of all are psychotherapy and Communism, actually one and the same. The International Edition No. 1 of Freedom Scientology, an 8-page newspaper, is devoted entirely to attacks upon psychotherapy. Again, Hubbard says, "The psychiatrist and his front groups operate straight out of terrorist textbooks. The Mafia looks like a convention of Sunday School teachers compared to these terrorist groups. Setting himself up as a terror symbol, the psychiatrist kidnaps, tortures and murders without any slightest police interference... Instead, these forces attack churches and peaceful, decent social groups under the direct orders of these terrorists... A psychiatrist kills a young girl for sexual kicks, murders a dozen patients with an ice-pick, castrates a hundred men. And they give him another million appropriation." The newspaper also conMankind; on the other, he envisions tained five cartoons ridiculing psychiatry, one showing the Grim Reaper carrying a scythe labeled "psychiatry" with the caption: "From Russia...

In All About Radiation (1957), Hubbard discusses brainwashing, psychiatry, and Russia in a revealing way. "Russia gave the Anglo-American world all that the U. S. and Great Britain use in the field of psychiatry, a Russian German science. Germany gave our culture all it used of psychology, a German science. Austria contributed psychoanalysis. Until Scientology, there was no Anglo-American thinking about the mind. It was all Russian, German, and Austrian. Now you don't suppose these three countries gave America and England total sciences, do you? No. They held out on us. Thus Anglo-American knowledge of the mind was fragmentary. Thus we could not hope to solve the problem posed by Russia with brainwashing with the fragment of a science Russia let us have. We had to tackle the whole thing newly in Scientology, an Anglo-American Science. By the way-don't be surprised that certain Communist elements fight Scientology and try to give us a bad name. We have undone all their tricks."

At first glance, the goals of Scientology appear very noble-the end of war, poverty, crime, insanity, and so on. Particularly appealing to many people is Hubbard's criticism of our cultural emphasis on good-evil, right-wrong duality. He advocates a view of any aberration as a case of stimulus-response, grounded in organic disturbances. He correctly observes that our prisons and asylums often do more harm than good. It warms the heart to hear him say, "The clear can be created from psychotic, neurotic, deranged, criminal or normal people if they have organically sound nervous systems. He [the Clear] demonstrates the basic nature of Mankind and that basic nature has been found uniformly and invariably to be good. That is now an established scientific fact, not an opinion."

Hubbard's teachings are full of schizoid paradoxes. On the one hand, he speaks of the good basic nature of With Love?" homo sapiens trying to enslave Thetans with "electronics." Thetans themselves are rather godlike beings, yet they are curiously prone to infantile pranks like stealing, "nipping," and "blanketing," Hubbard is here to save us, but we must pay dearly for our salvation. Scientology equals Freedom, we are told; yet one must not only pay for processing, one must join the organization. Members of Hubbard's Sea Org (organization) are required to sign a billion year contract. Security Checks, recently abolished, used to be required before gaining access to upper level material. In the March 6, 1970 issue of the L. A. Free Press, former Scientologist William Burroughs mentions his twenty-three hour ordeal of a Security Check, carried out on a lie detector-at Burrough's expense! He also describes the penalties for crimes against Scientology: "a student must wear a gray rag around his arm, may not bathe, shave or change clothes, must remain on the premises, must perform manual work, deliver a paralyzing blow to the enemy, admit his errors and petition every member of the center for forgiveness."

Burroughs, who knows more than the average layman about psychology and who studied medicine in Vienna for a while, reputedly attained Clear before becoming disenchanted. His views on Scientology are therefore particularly incisive: "The shoddy presentation, the reactionary opinions, the preposterous claims, the atrocious writing are so immediately repellent that few intelligent people can be persuaded that Scientology is worth a second glance.... As to my personal evaluation, after six months of study: I would not be writing this article unless I was convinced that Scientology is worth serious consideration. I feel that I have benefited greatly from Scientology processing. In an earlier article in Mayfair. I said that Scientology can do more in ten hours than psychoanalysis can do in ten years. For what that is worth, I still think so. Scientology is incomparably more precise and efficient than any method of psychotherapy now in use. But, unfortunately, Scientology has duplicated some of the basic errors of conventional psychotherapy." He goes on to cite the lack of anatomical correlation in Dianetics. "When I suggested that the Reactive Mind must be located in the by pothalamus my suggestion fell on unresponsive cars. Mr. Hubbard is not interested in suggestions. He states flatly that he has never known any suggestion from a student to contain the slightest value."

There can be little doubt that Scientology does have beneficial effects on many people. A friend of mine gave up drugs and stealing. He began to read more, too, and seemed much more confident when speaking. One of the first things that strikes you when you visit a Scientology center is the smiling good cheer, friendliness, and poise of the people. Something works-whether it's the techniques, the power of positive thinking, or simply a function of investing so much time and money in a project that you become determined to succeed, only Scientologists know.

Scientology is growing. According to the Cambridge Center, the worldwide movement now has over three million members and increases six fold every year. The list of prominent Scientologists includes actor Stephen Boyd, Salvador Dali, Donovan, Mama Cass. Leonard Cohen, blues singer John Hammond, the Incredible String Band, two of the Gateful Dead, science-fiction writer Ray Bradbury, and others. If Scientology is actually the bridge to a world of super-things, there seem to be some exceptional people on that bridge now. You do want to be on the winning side, don't you? It's later than you think.