Inside Scientology Part 17

[>] "I became a Dianetic preclear": Ibid., p. 12.

[>] "It nearly floored my auditor": Ibid., p. 15.

[>] "The violence of that sight": Ibid., pp. 1920.

[>] "I never was the same again": Ibid., p. 20.

[>] Sara Hubbard would later estimate: Sara Northrup Hubbard v. L. Ron Hubbard, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, April 23, 1951.

[>] One official of the Elizabeth: O'Brien, Dianetics in Limbo, p. 27.

[>] By the end of 1950: Atack, A Piece of Blue Sky, p. 118.

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

[>] "The only thing I ever saw": Ibid., p. 33.

[>] 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.

[>] 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."

[>] 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."

[>] 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.

[>] in 1951, Hubbard: Letter from Hubbard to the director of the FBI, Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C., March 3, 1951, FBI file #89. Letter from Hubbard to the director of the FBI, Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C., March 3, 1951, FBI file #89.

[>] "Many manics are delightful": Miller, Barefaced Messiah, p. 175. Miller referred to Klowden by the pseudonym "Barbara Kaye."

[>] "insert a fatal hypo": Ibid., p. 175.

[>] Sara ... signed a statement: Bent Corydon and Brian Ambry, L. Ron Hubbard: Madman or Messiah?, p. 305. During his research, Corydon wrote Sara a letter, asking her why she'd signed the doc.u.ment. "I thought by doing so he would leave me and Alexis alone," she responded. "It was horrible. I just wanted to be free of him!"

3. The Franchised Faith For the early history of Scientology, I relied upon the recollections of Jana Daniels and Alan Walter, whom I interviewed personally, as well as Helen O'Brien, as found in her book Dianetics in Limbo. For a less subjective view, I relied upon Atack's A Piece of Blue Sky and Miller's Barefaced Messiah. The Australian Report of the Board of Enquiry into Scientology, while certainly not objective, proved to be a quite insightful study of Scientology in Australia, enabling me not only to glean the practices the board found objectionable but also to discern the hatred and fear that Scientology inspired.

I was particularly interested in Scientology's place in Cold War America and found great insight in Stephen J. Whitfield's The Culture of the Cold War, as well as Hugh Urban's paper "Fair Game." I also relied on Hubbard's FBI files, accessible through the Freedom of Information Act; his correspondence, made available by Armstrong and Letkeman; and particularly his myriad Hubbard Communication Office (HCO) bulletins and policy letters of 195465, which are too many to be mentioned here, but which are cited in the notes and collected in Technical Bulletins of Dianetics and Scientology and The Original LRH Executive Directives.

Much can be said about Scientology as a business, and for help in understanding Hubbard's overall strategy, I relied upon personal interviews with Hubbard's former aide Ken Urqhart, with Alan Walter, and with the later Scientology executives Chris and Nancy Many, as well as with Sandra Mercer, a longtime Scientologist and onetime church staff member. For fine-grain detail in legal matters, I read articles in theWas.h.i.+ngton Post pertaining to Scientology's lawsuit against that newspaper, concerning violation of trade secrets. To understand Scientology's own view, I read stories on the protection of trade secrets published in the church's magazine Freedom.

[>] "important new material": O'Brien, Dianetics in Limbo, p. 49.

[>] "deep and marvelous insight": Ibid., p. 55.

[>] It was, essentially, a lie detector: Scientologists routinely deny that the E-meter bears any relations.h.i.+p to the lie detector. Nonetheless, like lie detectors, E-meters register the "electrodermal response," or changes in the conductivity of the surface of the skin, in people undergoing emotional stress, conscious or unconscious. Lie detectors, however, are much more sophisticated and also monitor changes in heartbeat and perspiration.

[>] "Knowing How to Know": What Is Scientology?, Church of Scientology, 1978 ed.; also "Frequently Asked Questions" at www.scientology.org, which states, "Scientology, which means 'knowing how to know,' is a religion based on the works of L. Ron Hubbard."

[>] "exact anatomy of the human mind": Hubbard, DMSMH, p. 590.

[>] "theta beings": Atack, A Piece of Blue Sky, p. 129. A full description of "theta beings" can be found in chapters 2 and 3 of Hubbard's Scientology: A History of Man.

[>] Hubbard had begun: "The Story of Dianetics and Scientology," lecture by L. Ron Hubbard, delivered on October 18, 1958.

[>] Even Hubbard's onetime lieutenant: Charles Platt's interview with Van Vogt, as cited in Charles Platt, Dream Makers: The Uncommon People Who Write Science Fiction. In fact, Van Vogt was president of the California a.s.sociation of Dianetic Auditors.

[>] "Perhaps we could call it": Letter from Hubbard to Helen O'Brien, April 10, 1953.

"Churches were by far": Stephen J. Whitfield, The Culture of the Cold War, pp. 8384.

[>] the most popular therapist: Ibid., p. 84.

[>] Peale's best-selling book: New York Times Best-Seller List; Publisher's Weekly Best-Seller List.

[>] religious fellows.h.i.+p: The Aberee (a newsletter published ten times a year from 1954 to 1965 by Dianetics followers Alphia and Agnes Hart), July and August 1954. A later reference to the HASI as a religious fellows.h.i.+p can be found in Hubbard, "Religion," HCO Policy Letter, October 29, 1962.

[>] "Hubbard had learned from": Atack, A Piece of Blue Sky, p. 139.

[>] "If advertised products don't have": Hubbard, HCO Policy Letter, August 14, 1963.

[>] Hubbard instructed one of his: Miller, Barefaced Messiah, p. 226. Hubbard also described his "three methods of dissemination," including the "I will talk to anyone" technique, in HCO Operational Bulletin No. 14, January 24, 1956.

[>] A similar ad was used: Hubbard, HCO Operational Bulletin No. 14, January 24, 1956.

[>] Another technique Hubbard advocated: Ibid.