Church of Scientology (Introduction, Part 2)
Hubbard became interested in a type of lie detector called the “electropsychometer” that he believed would yield better results in auditing. He obtained a franchise for this device, which he renamed the Hubbard Electrometer, or E-meter. He began calling patients “pre-clears” and “within six weeks had created a new subject apparently out of thin air.”1
Hubbard called his new subject Scientology and in introducing it, he claimed to have discovered the human soul. Whereas Dianetics had addressed the body, Scientology involved freeing souls (which Hubbard called “thetans”) from supposed entrapment in the physical or material world and restoring their alleged supernatural powers.
Hubbard established a headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona, awarded himself the degree of D.Scn. (Doctor of Scientology) and in May 1952 incorporated the Hubbard Association of Scientologists International under the personal control of himself and his third wife, Mary Sue. Meanwhile, the American Medical Association continued its opposition to Dianetics, as well as its new baby, Scientology.
In 1953 Hubbard regained control of Dianetics after a protracted legal battle and incorporated the Church of Scientology, Church of American Science and Church of Spiritual Engineering. In 1954 he incorporated the Church of Scientology of California, which became the mother church. In 1956 the church was granted US federal tax-exempt status.
In 1957, passing himself off as a nuclear physicist, Hubbard gave a series of lectures in London on “nuclear radiation and health,” promoting a vitamin compound which he claimed cured both “radiation sickness” and cancer. Also that year the CIA began a file on him.
- Jon Atack. “The Total Freedom Trap: Scientology, Dianetics and L. Ron Hubbard,” Chapter 10. Online article: http://tinyurl.com/245dd [↩]
