Dianetics
Main article: Dianetics
Scientology was developed by L. Ron Hubbard as a successor to his earlier self-help system, Dianetics. Dianetics uses a counseling technique known as auditing, to enable conscious recall of traumatic events in an individual's past.[49] It was originally intended to be a new psychotherapy and was not expected to become the foundation for a new religion.[50][51] Hubbard variously defined Dianetics as a spiritual healing technology and an organized science of thought.[52] The stated intent of Dianetics is to free individuals of the influence of past traumas by systematic exposure and removal of the engrams these events have left behind, in a process called clearing.[52]
Hubbard, an American writer of pulp fiction, especially science fiction,[53] first published his ideas on the human mind in the Explorers Club Journal and the May 1950 issue of Astounding Science Fiction magazine.[54] The publication of Dianetics in May 1950 is considered by Scientologists a seminal event of the century.[55] Two of Hubbard's key supporters at the time were John W. Campbell Jr., the editor ofAstounding Science Fiction, and Dr. Joseph A. Winter. Winter, hoping to have Dianetics accepted in the medical community, submitted papers outlining the principles and methodology of Dianetic therapy to the Journal of the American Medical Association and the American Journal of Psychiatry in 1949, but these were rejected.[56][57]
May 1950 saw the publication of Hubbard's Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health. His book entered the New York Times best-seller list on June 18 and stayed there until December 24 of that year.[58] Dianetics appealed to a broad range of people who used instructions from the book and applied the method to each other, becoming practitioners themselves.[54][59] Hubbard found himself the leader of a growing Dianetics movement.[54] He became a popular lecturer and established the Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation in Elizabeth, New Jersey, where he trained his first Dianetics counselors or auditors.[54][59]
Rutgers scholar Beryl Satter says that "there was little that was original in Hubbard's approach" with much of the theory having origins in popular conceptions of psychology.[60] Satter observes that, "keeping with the typical 1950s distrust of emotion, Hubbard promised that Dianetic treatment would tap dangerous emotions in order to release and erase them, thereby leaving individuals with increased powers of rationality."[60] Hubbard's thought was parallel with the trend of humanist psychology at that time, which also came about in the 1950s.[60] Passas and Castillo write that the appeal of Dianetics was based on its consistency with prevailing values.[61]
Dianetics soon met with criticism. Morris Fishbein, the editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association and well-known at the time as a debunker of quack medicine, dismissed Hubbard's book.[62] An article in Newsweek stated that "the dianetics concept is unscientific and unworthy of discussion or review".[63] In January 1951, the New Jersey Board of Medical Examiners instituted proceedings against the Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation for teaching medicine without a license, which eventually led to that foundation's bankruptcy.[64][65][66]
Some practitioners of Dianetics reported experiences which they believed had occurred in past lives, or previous incarnations.[59] In early 1951, reincarnation became a subject of intense debate within Dianetics.[67] Campbell and Winter, who was still hopeful of winning support for Dianetics from the medical community, championed a resolution to ban the topic.[67] But Hubbard decided to take the reports of past life events seriously and postulated the existence of the thetan, a concept similar to the soul.[59] This was an important factor in the transition from secular Dianetics to the more supernaturalistic Scientology, but more to the point, Hubbard saw that Dianetics was about to fail from its inherent individualism which set each person as his own authority. It has been suggested that Hubbard started the more religious mode of Scientology to establish an overarching authority—his own.[68]
Also in 1951, Hubbard introduced the electropsychometer (E-meter for short), a kind of galvanometer, as an auditing aid.[67] Based on a design by Hubbard, the device is held by Scientologists to be a useful tool in detecting changes in a person's state of mind.[67]
Publishers Weekly gave a plaque posthumously to L. Ron Hubbard commemorating the appearance of Dianetics on its bestseller list for one hundred consecutive weeks. One scholar has called Dianetics the bestselling non-Christian religious book of the century.[69]
The 1950 book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health has influenced Scientologists so much that they use a "dating system based on the initial appearance of this book. For example, 'A.D. 25' does not stand for Anno Domini, but 'After Dianetics.'"[69] Scholarly conjecture discusses the likelihood of the Church of Scientology falsifying the numbers of Dianeticsbooks sold; the Church says more than 90 million. Nevertheless, the book has seen very little attention from scholars.[69]
Church of Scientology
Main article: Church of Scientology
In 1952, Hubbard built on the existing framework set forth in Dianetics, and published a new set of teachings as Scientology, a religious philosophy.[70] In December 1953, Hubbard incorporated three churches – a "Church of American Science", a "Church of Scientology" and a "Church of Spiritual Engineering" – in Camden, New Jersey.[71] On February 18, 1954, with Hubbard's blessing, some of his followers set up the first local Church of Scientology, the Church of Scientology of California, adopting the "aims, purposes, principles and creed of the Church of American Science, as founded by L. Ron Hubbard."[71][72] The movement spread quickly through the United States and to other English-speaking countries such as Britain, Ireland, South Africa and Australia.[73] The second local Church of Scientology to be set up, after the one in California, was in Auckland, New Zealand.[73] In 1955, Hubbard established the Founding Church of Scientology in Washington, D.C.[59] In 1957, the Church of Scientology of California was granted tax-exempt status by the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and so, for a time, were other local churches.[62][74] In 1958 however, the IRS started a review of the appropriateness of this status.[62] In 1959, Hubbard moved to England, remaining there until the mid-1960s.[59]
The Church experienced further challenges. The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began an investigation concerning the claims the Church of Scientology made in connection with its E-meters.[62] On January 4, 1963, they raided offices of the Church of Scientology and seized hundreds of E-meters as illegal medical devices. The devices have since been required to carry a disclaimer saying that they are a purely religious artifact.[75]
In the mid-sixties, the Church of Scientology was banned in several Australian states, starting with Victoria in 1965.[76] The ban was based on theAnderson Report, which found that the auditing process involved "command" hypnosis, in which the hypnotist assumes "positive authoritative control" over the patient. On this point the report stated,
The Australian Church was forced to operate under the name of the "Church of the New Faith" as a result, the name and practice of Scientology having become illegal in the relevant states.[76] Several years of court proceedings aimed at overturning the ban followed.[76]
In the course of developing Scientology, Hubbard presented rapidly changing teachings that some have seen as often self-contradictory.[78][79] According to Lindholm, for the inner cadre of Scientologists in that period, involvement depended not so much on belief in a particular doctrine but on unquestioning faith in Hubbard.[78] In 1966, Hubbard stepped down as executive director of Scientology to devote himself to research and writing.[59][80] The following year, he formed the Sea Organization or Sea Org, which was to develop into an elite group within Scientology.[59][81] The Sea Org was based on three ships, the Diana, the Athena, and the Apollo, which served as the flag ship.[81] One month after the establishment of the Sea Org, Hubbard announced that he had made a breakthrough discovery, the result of which were the "OT III" materials purporting to provide a method for overcoming factors inhibiting spiritual progress.[81] These materials were first disseminated on the ships, and then propagated by Sea Org members reassigned to staff Advanced Organizations on land.[81]
In 1967, the IRS removed Scientology's tax-exempt status, asserting that its activities were commercial and operated for the benefit of Hubbard, rather than for charitable or religious purposes.[74] The decision resulted in a process of litigation that would be settled in the Church's favor a quarter of a century later, the longest case of litigation in IRS history.[62]
In 1979, as a result of FBI raids during Operation Snow White, eleven senior people in the church's Guardian's Office were convicted of obstructing justice, burglary of government offices, and theft of documents and government property. In 1981, Scientology took the German government to court for the first time.[82]
On January 1, 1982, Scientology established the Religious Technology Center (RTC) to oversee and ensure the standard application of Scientology technology.[83]
On November 11, 1982, the Free Zone was established by former top Scientologists in disagreement with RTC.[84] The Free Zone Association was founded and registered under the laws of Germany, and believes that the Church of Scientology has departed from its original philosophy.[85]
In 1983, in a unanimous decision, the High Court of Australia recognized Scientology as a religion in Australia, overturning restrictions that had limited activities of the church after the Anderson Report.[86]
On January 24, 1986, L. Ron Hubbard died at his ranch in Creston, California,[87] and David Miscavige became the head of the organization.
Starting in 1991, persons connected with Scientology filed fifty lawsuits against the Cult Awareness Network (CAN), a group that had been critical of Scientology.[88] Although many of the suits were dismissed, one of the suits filed against the Cult Awareness Network resulted in $2 million in losses for the network.[88] Consequently, the organization was forced to go bankrupt.[88] In 1996, Steven L. Hayes, a Scientologist, purchased the bankrupt Cult Awareness Network's logo and appurtenances.[88][89] A new Cult Awareness Network was set up with Scientology backing, which operates as an information and networking center for non-traditional religions, referring callers to academics and other experts.[90][91]
In a 1993 U.S. lawsuit brought by the Church of Scientology against Steven Fishman, a former member of the Church, Fishman made a court declaration which included several dozen pages of formerly secret esoterica detailing aspects of Scientologist cosmogony.[92] As a result of the litigation, this material, normally strictly safeguarded and used only in Scientology's more advanced "OT levels", found its way onto the Internet.[92] This resulted in a battle between the Church of Scientology and its online critics over the right to disclose this material, or safeguard its confidentiality.[92] The Church of Scientology was forced to issue a press release acknowledging the existence of this cosmogony, rather than allow its critics "to distort and misuse this information for their own purposes."[92] Even so, the material, notably the story of Xenu, has since been widely disseminated and used to caricature Scientology, despite the Church's vigorous program of copyright litigation.[92]
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