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William Alanson White

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Web article: On the Rediscovery of the Human Soul (n.d.)

I have been engaged in the investigation of the fundamentals of life, the material universe and human behavior,” wrote L. Ron Hubbard of his larger philosophic journey towards Dianetics and Scientology, and proceeded to reference a search “down many highways, through many byroads, into many back alleys of uncertainty.” In a further explanation of that search is the introduction and first chapter to a retrospective, “The Rediscovery of the Human Soul.”

Begun in 1956, but never completed, the manuscript effectively tells of all that preceded what appears in this publication. As a word of general background, let us add a few salient points: Although events recounted here mark the commencement of Ron’s philosophic search, he had previously spent several years, as he elsewhere put it, “poking an inquisitive mind” into related fields. Of special note, were his early psychoanalytic studies with United States Naval Commander Joseph Cheeseman Thompson, who, incidentally, had been the first United States military officer to study under Freud in Vienna, and among the first to enter Freudian theory into the field of ethnology. Also bearing mention was Ron’s very early friendship with the deeply spiritual Blackfeet tribesmen in and around his home in Montana, and what amounted to folkloric studies with a locally famous medicine man. The point, in both cases: well before his arrival at George Washington University, Ron had pondered much. Finally, and as referenced here, Ron had also spent nearly two years in a prerevolutionary China and, in fact, had been among the first Westerners after Marco Polo to gain entrance into forbidden Tibetan lamaseries scattered through the southern hills of Manchuria.

Regarding “The Rediscovery of the Human Soul,” let us add that in referencing the “formidable and slightly mad” chief of George Washington University’s Psychology Department, he is actually speaking of Dr. Fred August Moss, infamous among students for trick questions and the running of rats through gruesome electrical mazes. Meanwhile the “very famous psychiatrist” who reviews Ron’s calculations on human memory capacity was none other than William Alanson White, then superintendent of Washington, DC’s St. Elizabeth’s Hospital and still celebrated for his outspoken opposition to psychosurgery. Most importantly, however, let us simply understand this: In recalling his work through these years, and particularly his efforts to isolate the repository of human memory, he was factually raising a crucial philosophic question. That is, when we attempt to explain all human memory in terms of purely physical phenomena, we will ultimately find ourselves staring at the singular flaw in the whole of the Western scientific creed. Namely, no diagram of the human brain can account for all we are capable of remembering (much less imagining). It was not for nothing, then, that William Alanson White remarked, in response to Ron’s memory calculations, “You have just laid to waste the entire foundation of psychiatric and neurological theory.”

Today, of course, psychologists, psychiatrists, neurologists et al., continue to turn themselves inside out in an effort to propose theories broad enough to explain human memory in purely physical terms. (One of the latest involves a model of nonlocalized, or scattered memory traces along synaptic contacts so that memories are superimposed upon one another, while another holds that memory is recreated through dynamic neural interplay.) But in either case, questions Ron posed in 1932 are still not answerable within a wholly material context. Hence the increasingly frequent admissions from the scientific community that perhaps, after all, as Ron puts it, “man, as a learned whole, knew damned little about the subject.”1

Notes

  1. CSI. (n.d.) On the Rediscovery of the Human Soul. Retrieved from http://web.archive.org/web/20130603223102/http://www.ronthephilosopher.org/phlspher/page26.htm ↩

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Web article: A Word on Rediscovering the Human Soul (n.d.)

I have been engaged in the investigation of the fundamentals of life, the material universe and human behavior,” wrote L. Ron Hubbard of his larger philosophic journey towards Dianetics and Scientology, and proceeded to reference a search “down many highways, through many byroads, into many back alleys of uncertainty.” In a further explanation of that search is the introduction and first chapter to a retrospective, “The Rediscovery of the Human Soul.”

Begun in 1956, but never completed, the manuscript effectively tells of all that preceded what appears in this publication. As a word of general background, let us add a few salient points: Although events recounted here mark the commencement of Ron’s philosophic search, he had previously spent several years, as he elsewhere put it, “poking an inquisitive mind” into related fields. Of special note, were his early psychoanalytic studies with United States Naval Commander Joseph Cheeseman Thompson, who, incidentally, had been the first United States military officer to study under Freud in Vienna, and among the first to enter Freudian theory into the field of ethnology. Also bearing mention was Ron’s very early friendship with the deeply spiritual Blackfeet tribesmen in and around his home in Montana, and what amounted to folkloric studies with a locally famous medicine man. The point, in both cases: well before his arrival at George Washington University, Ron had pondered much. Finally, and as referenced here, Ron had also spent nearly two years in a prerevolutionary China and, in fact, had been among the first Westerners after Marco Polo to gain entrance into forbidden Tibetan lamaseries scattered through the southern hills of Manchuria.

Regarding “The Rediscovery of the Human Soul,” let us add that in referencing the “formidable and slightly mad” chief of George Washington University’s Psychology Department, he is actually speaking of Dr. Fred August Moss, infamous among students for trick questions and the running of rats through gruesome electrical mazes. Meanwhile the “very famous psychiatrist” who reviews Ron’s calculations on human memory capacity was none other than William Alanson White, then superintendent of Washington, DC’s St. Elizabeth’s Hospital and still celebrated for his outspoken opposition to psychosurgery. Most importantly, however, let us simply understand this: In recalling his work through these years, and particularly his efforts to isolate the repository of human memory, he was factually raising a crucial philosophic question. That is, when we attempt to explain all human memory in terms of purely physical phenomena, we will ultimately find ourselves staring at the singular flaw in the whole of the Western scientific creed. Namely, no diagram of the human brain can account for all we are capable of remembering (much less imagining). It was not for nothing, then, that William Alanson White remarked, in response to Ron’s memory calculations, “You have just laid to waste the entire foundation of psychiatric and neurological theory.”

Today, of course, psychologists, psychiatrists, neurologists et al., continue to turn themselves inside out in an effort to propose theories broad enough to explain human memory in purely physical terms. (One of the latest involves a model of nonlocalized, or scattered memory traces along synaptic contacts so that memories are superimposed upon one another, while another holds that memory is recreated through dynamic neural interplay.) But in either case, questions Ron posed in 1932 are still not answerable within a wholly material context. Hence the increasingly frequent admissions from the scientific community that perhaps, after all, as Ron puts it, “man, as a learned whole, knew damned little about the subject.”1

Notes

  1. CSI. (n.d.)  A Word on Rediscovering the Human Soul. Retrieved from http://www.ronthephilosopher.org/phlspher/page26.htm ↩

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HCOPL: The Anatomy of Thought (1970)

HUBBARD COMMUNICATIONS OFFICE
Saint Hill Manor, East Grinstead, Sussex
HCO POLICY LETTER OF 26 APRIL 1970R
REVISED 15 MARCH 1975
Data Series 1R

THE ANATOMY OF THOUGHT

There are many types of thought. Unless one knows these types he can make serious errors on administrative lines.

In the unpublished work “Excalibur” (most of which has been released in HCOBs, PLs and books) there was an important fundamental truth. This was:

SANITY IS THE ABILITY TO RECOGNIZE DIFFERENCES, SIMILARITIES AND IDENTITIES.

This is also intelligence.

Two or more facts or things that are totally unlike are DIFFERENT. They are not the same fact or same object.

Two or more facts or things that have something in common with one another are SIMILAR.

Two or more facts or things that have all their characteristics tn common with one another are IDENTICAL.

SEMANTICS

In a subject developed by Korzybski a great deal of stress is given to the niceties of words. In brief a word is NOT the thing. And an object exactly like another object is different because it occupies a different space and thus “can’t be the same object.”

As Alfred Korzybski studied under psychiatry and amongst the insane (his mentor was William Alanson White at Saint Elizabeth’s insane asylum in Washington, DC) one can regard him mainly as the father of confusion. This work, “general semantics,” a corruption of semantics, (meaning really “significance” or the “meaning of words”) has just enough truth in it to invite interest and just enough curves to injure one’s ability to think or communicate. Korzybski did not know the formula of human communication and university professors teaching semantics mainly ended up assuring students (and proving it) that no one can communicate with anyone because nobody really knows what anybody else means. As this “modern” (it was known to the Greeks, was a specialty of Sophists and was also used by Socrates) penetration into culture affects all education in the West today, it is no wonder that current communication is badly

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strained. Schools no longer teach basic logic. Due to earlier miseducation in language and no real education in logic much broken-down “think” can occur in high places.

A system of thinking derived from a study of psychotics is not a good yardstick to employ in solving problems. Yet the “thinking” of heads of states is based on illogical and irrational rules. Populations, fortunately less “well educated,” are assaulted by the irrational (kooky) “thinking” of governments. This “thinking” is faulty mainly because it is based on the faulty logic shoved off on schoolchildren.

“You must study geometry because that is the way you think” is an idiocy that has been current for the past two or three decades in schools. I have nothing against Korzybski. But the general impact of “general semantics” has been to give us stupefied schoolboys who, growing up without any training in logic except general semantics are giving us problems. Increasingly we are dealing with people who have never been taught to think and whose native ability to do so has been hampered by a false “education.”

ADMINISTRATIVE TROUBLE

At once this gives an administrator trouble. Outside and inside his sphere of influence he is dealing with people who not only can’t think but have been taught carefully to reach irrational conclusions.

One can make a great deal of headway and experience a lot of relief by realizing the way things are and not getting exasperated and outraged by the absurdities that he sees being used as “solutions.” He is dealing with people who in school were not only not taught to think but were often taught the impossibility of thinking or communicating.

This has a very vast influence on an administrator. Things that are perfectly obvious to him get so muddled when passed for decision to others that an administrator tends to go into apathy or despair.

For instance it is completely logical to him that some activity must either cut its expenses or make more money before it goes broke. So he passes this on as an order demanding that the activity balance up its income-outgo ratio. He gets back a “solution” that they “get a huge sum each week from their reserves” so they will be “solvent.” The administrator feels rattled and even betrayed. What reserves? Do they have reserves? So he demands to know, has this activity been salting away reserves he knew nothing about? And he receives a solemn
reply-no they don’t have any reserves but they consider the administrator should just send them money!

The idiocy involved here is that the “logic” of the persons in that activity is not up to realizing that you cannot take more out of something than is in it. And the activity mentioned is not alone. Today the “assets” of a company are said by “competent economists” to be its property-goodwill-cash added to its debts! In short, if you have ten pennies and owe £1000 then your assets are £1000-0-10!

Yes, you say, but that’s crazy! And you’re right.

For an example of modern “think” the Ford Foundation is believed to have

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financially supported the arming of revolutionary groups so they will be dependent upon the capitalistic system and won’t overthrow it even though the revolutionary group could not exist without Ford Foundation support! A war is fought and continued for years to defend the property rights of landlords against peasants although the landlords are mostly dead. Electronic computers are exported under government license and paid for by the exporter and shipped to an enemy who could not bomb the exporter without them in order to prevent the enemy from bombing the exporter. Yes, one says. That’s treason. Not necessarily. It is the inability to think! It is the result of suppressing the native ability by false systems of ulogic.”

PROPER DEFINITIONS

People who annoy one with such weird “solutions” do not know certain differences.

Thoughts are infinitely divisible into classes of thought.

In other words, in thought there are certain wide differences which are very different indeed.

A FACT is something that can be proven to exist by visible evidence.

An OPINION is something which mayor may not be based on any facts.

Yet a sloppy mind sees no difference between a FACT and somebody’s opinion.

In courts a psychiatrist (who is an AUTHORITY) says “Joe Doakes is crazy.”

Joe Doakes is promptly put away for ten years, tortured or killed. Yet this statement is just an OPINION uttered by somebody whose sanity is more than suspect and what’s more is taken from a field “psychiatry” which has no basis in fact since it cannot cure or even detect insanity.

A vast number of people see no difference at all in FACTS and OPINIONS and gaily accept both or either as having equal validity.

An administrator continually gets opinions on his lines which are masquerading as facts.

If opinion instead of facts are used in solving problems then one comes up with insane solutions.

Here is an example: By opinion it is assumed there are 3000 pounds of potatoes available in a crop. An order is therefore written and payment ($300 at 10 cents a pound) is made for the crop. One sack of potatoes is delivered containing 100 pounds. That sack was the fact. Loss is 2900 pounds of potatoes. An administrator runs into this continually. He sends  somebody to find an electric potato peeler “just like the one we had.” He gets back a paring knife because it is the same.

The administrator orders a similar type of shirt and gets overcoats.

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The administrator feels he is dealing with malice, sharp practice, laziness, etc., etc. He can lose all faith in honesty and truthfulness.

The ACTUAL REASON he is getting such breakdowns is:

SANITY IS THE ABILITY TO RECOGNIZE DIFFERENCES, SIMILARITIES AND IDENTITIES.

The people with whom he is dealing can’t think to such a degree that they give him insane situations. Such people are not crazy. Their thinking is suppressed and distorted by modern “education.” “You can’t really communicate to anybody because the same word means different things to everyone who uses it.”

In other words, all identities are different.

A BASIC LAW is usually confused by students with an INCIDENTAL FACT. This is conceiving a similarity when one, the law, is so far senior to the fact that one could throw the fact away and be no poorer.

When a student or an employee cannot USE a subject he studies or cannot seem to understand a situation his disability is that basics are conceived by him to be merely similar to incidental remarks.

The law, “Objects fall when dropped,” is just the same to him as the casual example “a cat jumped off a chair and landed on the floor.” Out of this he fixedly keeps in mind two “things he read” -objects fall when dropped, a cat jumped off a chair and landed on the floor. He may see these as having identical value whereas they are similar in subject but widely different in VALUE.

You give this person a brief write-up of company policy. “Customers must be satisfied with our service,” begins the write-up. Of course that’s a law because it has been found to be catastrophic to violate it. On down the page is written, “A card is sent to advise the customer about the order.” The employee says he understands all this and goes off apparently happy to carry out his duties. A few weeks later Smith and Co. write and say they will do no more business with you. You hastily try to find out WHY. If you’re lucky enough to track it down, you find the shipping clerk sent them a card saying, “Your order was received and we don’t intend to fill it.”

You have the clerk in. You lay down the facts. He looks at you glumly and says he’s sorry. He goes back and pulls another blooper. You threaten to fire him. He’s now cost the company $54,000. He is contrite.

All he understands is that life is confusing and that for some mysterious reason you are mad at him, probably because you are naturally grouchy. What he doesn’t know is what the administrator seldom taps. It isn’t that he doesn’t know “company policy.” It’s that he doesn’t know the difference between a law and a comment!

A law of course is something with which one thinks. It is a thing to which one aligns other junior facts and actions. A law lets one PREDICT that if ALL OBJECTS FALL when not supported, then of course cats, books and plates can be predicted in behavior if one lets go of them. As the employee hasn’t a clue

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that there is any difference amongst laws, facts, opinions, orders or suggestions he of course cannot think as he doesn’t have anything to which he can align other data or with which to predict consequences.

He doesn’t even know that company policy is, “Too many goofs equals fired.” So when he does get sacked he thinks “somebody got mad at him.” If you think this applies only to the “stupid employee,” know that a whole government service can go this way. Two such services only promoted officers to high rank if they sank their own ships or got their men killed! Social acceptability was the only datum used for promotion and it followed that men too socially involved (or too drunk) of course lost battles.

An organization, therefore, can itself be daffy if it has a concept that laws and facts and opinions are all the same thing and so has no operating policies or laws.

Whole bodies of knowledge can go this route. The laws are submerged into incidental facts. The incidental facts are held onto and the laws never pointed up as having the special value of aligning other data or actions. An administrator can call a conference on a new building, accidentally collect people who can’t differentiate amongst laws, facts, opinions or suggestions treating them of equal value – and find himself not with a new building but a staggering financial loss.

As the world drifts along with its generations less and less taught and more and more suppressed in thinking, it will of course experience more and more catastrophes in economics, politics and culture and so go boom. As all this influences anyone in any organization it is an important point.

PERSONNEL

In despair an administrator enters the field of choosing personnel by experience with them. He embraces a very cruel modern system that fires at once anybody who flubs.
Actually he is trying to defend himself against some hidden menace he has never defined but which haunts him day by day.

The majority of people with whom he deals-and especially governments cannot conceive of:

1. differences,
2. similarities,
3. identities.

As a result they usually can’t tell a FACT from an OPINION (because all differences are probably identities and all identities are different and all similarities are imaginary).

A=A=A

We have a broad dissertation on this in Dianetics: The Modern Science of

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Mental Health as it affects insane behavior. Everything is everything else. Mr. X looks at a horse, knows it’s a house, knows it’s a schoolteacher. So when he sees a horse he is respectful.

When anyone in an org is sanely trying to get things done he sometimes feels like he is spinning from the replies and responses he gets to orders or requests. That’s because observation was faulty or think was faulty at the other end of the comm line.

As he tries to get things done he begins to realize (usually falsely) that he is regarded as odd for getting impatient.

THE WAYS OUT

There are several ways out of this mess.

a. One is to issue orders that demand close observation and execution. Issuance of clear orders provides no faintest opportunity of error, assumption or default.

b. Another is to demand that an order is fully understood before it is executed.

c. A third is to be sure one totally understands any order one receives before one goes off to do it or order it done.

d. One is to deal only in ORDERS and leave nothing to interpretation.

e. Another is to pretest personnel on one’s lines for ability to observe and conceive differences, similarities and identities.

f. The effective way is to get the personnel processed.

g. A useful way is to educate people with drills until they can think.

h. Another way is to defend one’s areas by excluding insofar as possible adjacent areas where crippled think is rampant.

i. A harsh way is to plow under zones whose irrationality is destructive (such as psychiatry).

THOUGHT CONFUSIONS

Wherever you have thought confusions (where FACT = OPINION, where suggestion = orders, where an observation is taken as a direction, etc., etc., etc.) an administrator is at serious risk.

Misunderstoods pile up on these short circuits. Out of misunderstoods come hostilities. Out of these come overwork or destruction.

The need for all discipline can be traced back to the inability to think. Even

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when appearing clever, criminals are idiots; they have not ever thought the thought through.

One can conclude that anyone on management lines, high or low, is drastically affected by irrational think.

Individuals to whom differences are identities and identities are differences can muddle up an operation to a point where disaster is inevitable.

These are the third dynamic facts with which an organization lives daily.

The fault can be very subtle so as to nearly escape close search or it can be so very broad so that it is obvious and ridiculous. But on all admin lines, the point that fails has not achieved the basic law:

SANITY IS THE ABILITY TO RECOGNIZE DIFFERENCES, SIMILARITIES AND IDENTITIES.

L. RON HUBBARD
Founder 1

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Notes

  1. Hubbard, L. R. (1970, 26 April). The Anatomy of Thought. Management Series (1991 ed., Vol. 1, Data Series 1R, pp.3-9). Los Angeles: Bridge Publications, Inc. ↩

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Letter: HASI letter to Better Business Bureau (1954)

 

HUBBARD ASSOCIATION OF SCIENTOLOGISTS INTERNATIONAL
806 North Third Street
Phoenix, Arizona

June 12, 1954

Better Business Bureau
834 North Central Avenue
Phoenix, Arizona1

Gentlemen:

For your interest, the Hubbard Association of Scientologists, an Arizona Corporation, has brought about certain changes in Scientology, and of which we would like to acquaint you.

Scientology is described as a science of knowingness. It is actually a modern approach, using mathematics and physics to the philosophic subject of epistemology. The goal of Scientology is to bring about greater capabilities in human beings such as increases in recognition, memory, and reaction time. Such a science would of course address various phenomena such as psychosomatic illness, aberration and behavior.

The subject of Scientology is largely the work of L. Ron Hubbard, author and scientist, who began his work in 1932 while a student of nuclear physics at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Hubbard was also trained in psycho-analysis, studied personally with Freud and who instituted psycho-analysis in the U.S. Navy for use in flight surgery. Hubbard was also trained by Dr. William Alan White, then superintendent of St. Elizabeth’s, the government asylum at Washington.2

Hubbard’s interest in the mind was from the standpoint of physical energy and, later, anthropology. A member of the Explorer’s Club in good standing for eighteen years, Hubbard has led several expeditions and has widely studied, in Asia, Alaska, and Latin America barbaric cultures for what they might reveal concerning the motivations of humanities. In World War II he served with distinction as a naval officer and was selected as Naval Civil Affairs by reason of his knowledge of the Oriental psychology.

In 1947 Hubbard published a book for the Gerontological Society and the American Medical Association called “Scientology A New Science.”3 Politely received, the data yet remained unstudied and so unused and Hubbard eventually followed this original publications with an article in the Explorer’s Club professional journal. This article attracted the attention of some people, amongst them members of the Russian government. Hubbard saw a need to release his work in more detailed form, and received an offer from Hermitage House, Inc., one of the better publishers of psychiatric texts, he consented to write a formal book.

Here, if anywhere, Hubbard erred. Hermitage House insisted on a popularized version and a more popular name for the subject (Dianetics) and Hubbard, foreseeing no more than a few thousand copy sale, agreed. Hermitage House, altering the manuscript and writing a new introduction (a fact which became the subject of a suit) unwisely chose to publish an article about “Dianetics” by Hubbard in a pulp magazine. Hubbard, as in the case of almost any nuclear physicist, often wrote for amusement, science fiction. Hermitage House desired to capitalize on this fact to gain a sale amongst those who were familiar with Hubbard’s name.

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The book, called “Dianetics: Modern Science of Mental Health” startled the publishing world, and Hubbard, by climbing high into the best-seller listing of the New York Times and staying there for months. Such instant popularity found Hubbard unprepared for the floods of mail and pleas for help.

Hubbard, interested only in research, financially independent, without such royalties, was glad to listen to a proposal from one C. Parker Morgan and his publisher to let them form a Foundation to service this demand. Seven trustees, of which Hubbard was only one, formed on June 1, 1950 the Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation of Elizabeth, New Jersey. Hubbard gave them the book and its royalties and returned to his own pursuits.

This organization, however, pressed heavily upon him for lectures and disturbed his own routine. Yet this corporation insisted on growing, forming other corporations in Illinois, California and Hawaii, each with a duplicate directorate.

In November, 1950 Hubbard became convinced that the corporation was not sound and that it would not attain to its professed goal of helping people. He attempted to withdraw his name from it and was variously inveighed against. He had only one vote in seven. Forced to leave it in possession and continued use of his name, he retired in December to Palm Springs, California where he set up a modest research laboratory. Although he did not seek them, many people began to come to him in Palm Springs. This seriously impaired the business of the Foundation such [unintelligible] in Los Angeles for Hubbard charged nothing.

A.E. van Vogt4, the principal mover in the Los Angeles Foundation and others were intensely provoked at Hubbard’s withdrawal. Hubbard’s wife, from whom he had been separated, 5 also became incensed at him. For public appearance she had been a Foundation director. With the obvious coming failure of the Foundations and with it a failure of the income she drew from i[t] she threatened Hubbard with a public scandal if he did not support the Foundations.

Hubbard, busy writing a new book, refused to lend any credence to these threats or those of the Elizabeth board and went to Cuba where he completed a 125,000 word book in the next many weeks. As their young child had always been under his, not her mother’s care, the child accompanied him.6

True to her threats and those of the Foundation trustees a great deal of scandal was stirred up. A receivership was ga[ined] in Los Angeles by this woman and the trustees to seize control [of] the Foundations and many statements were made to the press.

Hubbard made no statements of any kind during all this period and when he became aware that they had been made, ordered his separated wife to him, had her sign a confession to perjury (copy enclosed) and applied for and received a divorce from her without alimony to her.

Meanwhile the Elizabeth Foundation over which Hubbard had never had power beyond his personality, sold itself to one Don G. Purcell, an oilman in Kansas.

Purcell moved the Foundation to Wichita, Kansas and Hubbard, having completed his book, went to Kansas to settle various affairs.

Considering that Purcell wished only to make money from Dianetics, Hubbard sought to reform the attitude of the Foundation. To accomplish this he supported himself in Kansas by writing and lecturing and finally, after a few months, unable

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to bring about a good public presence on the part of the Foundation and Purcell, he resigned from all connections in early 1952 and refused Purcell and others any further permission to use his name or work.

Purcell’s answer was to file for bankruptcy within one month conceiving that the Foundations could not continue without Hubbard’s support. Purcell bought the Foundations from bankruptcy as his personal property shortly after and continued them in business, but, unable to use Hubbard’s name or additional work, the organization The Dianetic Foundation of Kansas came to exist only as a shell, quite inactive today.

After resigning in early 1952, Hubbard came to Phoenix to visit his parents, liked the city and with his wife Mary Sue whom he married early in 1952, settled here. He opened a quiet office which became that fall (1952) the Hubbard Association of Scientologists. He had reverted “Dianetics” back to its original name, Scientology.

This organization was founded by some five hundred people in various parts of the world who had long been interested in Hubbard’s work. Publishing a few books locally and issuing twice a month, the Journal of Scientology, the HAS has continued a quiet carrer [sic] in Arizona. It has opened up branch offices in Camden, New Jersey and London, England. The association exists to publish material related to behavior and to [unintelligible] [people in] Scientology.

The HAS is the first organization in the field of “Dianetics” and Scientology to be controlled by Hubbard. It pays its bills promptly as any Phoenix business firm with which it deals can attest. Although any organization dealing with behaviour can attract hangers-on, there has been no consequences of this in the HAS. Hubbard’s policy of quiet, orderly business and investigation is clearly manifested in the general good repute of the HAS in Phoenix.

In so far as possible the HAS has sought to associate itself with steady and reliable people. It does permit its name and the name Scientology to be used by autonomous organizations. Such, called associates or groups, exist in many ci[ties.] They use HAS materials and pay a membership fee but otherwise have no connection. When they err financially or seem to hur[t] HAS repute, their membership is cancelled. This has happened recently in Los Angeles. The HAS has no other control over such persons.

The addresses of the HAS are 806 North Third Street, Phoenix, Arizona, 507 Market Street, Camden, New Jersey, 163 Holland Park Avenue, London, England. The Camden and London offices are run by committees.

The HAS, under the management of Hubbard, has a two year record of good repute and responsibility. It is aware, as is Hubbard, that the 1950 blatant use of Hubbard’s name in early Foundations has often reflected against HAS progress. It is aware of the mountains of publicity generated by the sudden and strange popularity of a book. The HAS is also aware that it is the first organization controlled by Hubbard and it enjoys good public reputation as well as good credit. It is content to pay its way, has no great ambition to riches and builds solidly as it goes.

The HAS recently rented quarters at 401-A East Roosevelt and 616 North Third Street. The latter address was once occupied by a psychologist, Dr. Gordon Beckstead, who was in no way connected with the HAS.

Awakening recently to the fact that many of its interested people were ministers, the HAS has assisted them to form churches such as the Church of American Science and the Church of Scientology. Also, when friends of Hubbard in Euro[pe]

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pointed out to him that the home organization of psycho-analysis, the Freudian Institute of Vienna, was now in the Russian zone of Austria and desired removal, Hubbard helped finance the organization of the “Freudian Foundation of America” to be offered to those in Vienna should they desire to avail themselves to it. In the latter and in the churches the HAS has no further control or interest.

As Scientology is proving it can do much for disabled veterans and others such as they, the HAS may soon make Scientology available to the disabled as a public service.

The HAS business gross is about $10,000 a month. It has no profits or dividends. It pays Hubbard’s expenses in writing and investigation. It finances the processing, with Scientology of indigent and disabled people.

There is no broadly stated medical opinion of Scientology, mainly because it does not in any way intend or pretend to encroach upon medicine. Its field in the study of Knowledge itself and its benefits are more closely allied to philosophy and religion than to medicine or psychology. If one “gets well” in the process of knowing more about himself or Mankind the benefit derived from knowledge gained, not treatment received.

Aside from offering public services, the firm two-year policy of the HAS will continue to be followed. To neither defend nor attack on the public stage, but to keep [unintelligible] house, financially and ethically sound.

Sincerely,
Board of Directors
Hubbard Association of Scientology

by John Galusha, Secretary

Notes

  1. Records from http://usminc.org/FBIFILES/FIVE/05008.pdf ↩
  2. Wikipedia: William Alanson White ↩
  3. “Dianetics: The Original Thesis … (was o)riginally titled Scientology: A New Science, the book was retitled Abnormal Dianetics when it was offered to the medical and psychiatric professions in early 1948.”—Technical Bulletins  (Volume I, p. 3, 1991 ed.) ↩
  4. Wikipedia: A. E. van Vogt ↩
  5. Hubbard was then married to Sara Northrup. Wikipedia: Sara Northrup Hollister ↩
  6. The child’s name was Alexis Hubbard. ↩

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FBI: Letter from Scientology executive John Galusha to FBI (1954)

FROM THE FILES OF THE FBI #1241

HUBBARD ASSOCIATION OF SCIENTOLOGISTS INTERNATIONAL

806 North Third Street
Phoenix, Arizona

June 12, 1954

Better Business Bureau
834 North Central Avenue
Phoenix, Arizona

Gentlemen:

For your interest, the Hubbard Association of Scientologists, an Arizona Corporation, has brought about certain changes in Scientology, and of which we would like to acquaint you.

Scientology is described as a science of knowingness. It is actually a modern approach, using mathematics and physics, to the philosophic subject of epistemology. The goal of Scientology is to bring about greater capabilities in human beings such as increases in recognition, memory, and reaction time. Such a science would of course address various phenomena such as psychosomatic illness, aberration and behavior.

The subject of Scientology is largely the work of L. Ron Hubbard, author and scientist, who began his work in 1932 while a student of nuclear physics at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Hubbard was also trained in psycho-analysis in Washington, D.C. by Commander Tompson, (M.C.) U.S.N. who had studied personally with Freud and who instituted psycho-analysis in the U.S. Navy for use in flight surgery. Hubbard was also trained by Dr. William Alan White, then superintendent of St. Elizabeth’s, the government asylum at Washington.

Hubbard’s interest in the mind was from the standpoint of physical energy and, later, anthropology. A member of the Explorer’s Club in good standing for eighteen years, Hubbard has led several expeditions and has widely studied, in Asia, Alaska and Latin America barbaric cultures for what they might reveal concerning the motivations of humanities. In World War II he served with distinction as a naval officer and was selected to Naval Civil Affairs by reason of his knowledge of the Oriental psychology.

In 1947 Hubbard published a book for the Gerontological Society and the American Medical Association called “Scientology A New Science.” Politely received, the date yet remained unstudied and so unused and Hubbard eventually followed this original publications [sic] with an article in the Explorer Club professional journal. This article attracted the attention of many people, amongst them members of the Russian government. Hubbard saw a need to release his work in more detailed form and, received an offer from Hermitage House, Inc., one of the better publisher of psychiatric texts, he consented to write a formal book.

Here, if anywhere, Hubbard erred. Hermitage House insisted on a popularized version and a more popular name for the subject (Dianetics) and Hubbard, foseeing [sic] no more than a few thousand copy sale, agreed. Hermitage House, altering the manuscript and writing a new introduction (a fact which became the subject of a suit) unwisely chose to publish an article about “Dianetics” by Hubbard in a pulp magazine. Hubbard, as in the case of almost any nuclear physicist, often wrote, for amusement science fiction. Hermitage House desired to capitalize on this fact to gain a sale amongst those who were familiar with Hubbard’s name.

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The book, called “Dianetics: Modern Science of Mental Health” startled the publishing world, and Hubbard, by climbing high into the best-seller listing of the New York Times and staying there for months. Such instant popularity found Hubbard unprepared for the floods of mail and pleas for help.

Hubbard, interested only in research, financially independent without such royalties, was glad to listen to a proposal from on C. Parker Morgan and his publisher to let them form a Foundation to service this demand. Seven trustees, of which Hubbard was only one, formed on June 1, 1950 the Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation of Elizabeth, New Jersey. Hubbard gave the[?] book and its royalties and returned to his own pursuits.

This organization, however, pressed heavily upon him for lectures and disturbed his own routine. Yet the corporation insisted on growing, forming other corporations in Illinois, California and Hawaii, each with a duplicate directorate.

In November, 1950 Hubbard became convinced that the corporation was not sound and that it would not attain to its professed goal of helping people. He attempted to withdraw his name from it and was variously inveighed against. He had only one vote in seven. Forced to leave it in possession and continued use of his name, he retired in December to Palm Springs, California where he set up a modest research laboratory. Although he did not seek them, many people began to come to him in Palm Springs. This seriously impaired the business of the Foundation such [illegible word] that in Los Angeles for Hubbard charged nothing.

A.E. van Vogt, the principal mover in the Los Angeles Foundation and others were intensely provoked at Hubbard’s withdrawal. Hubbard’s wife, from whom he had been separated, also became incensed at him. For public appearance she had been a Foundation director. With the obvious coming failure of the Foundations and with it a failure of the income she drew from i[?] she threatened Hubbard with public scandal if he did not support the Foundations.

Hubbard, busy writing a new book, refused to lend any credence to these threats or those of the Elizabeth board and went to Cuba where he completed a 125,000 word book in the next many weeks. As their young child had always been under his, not her mother’s care, the child accompanied him.

True to her threats and those of the Foundation trust[?] a great deal of scandal was stirred up. A receivership was gai[?] in Los Angeles by this woman and the trustees to seize control [?] the Foundations and many statements were made to the press.

Hubbard made no statements of any kind during all this period and when he became aware that they had been made, ordere[?] his separated wife to him, had her sign a confession to perjury (copy enclosed) and applied for and received a divorce from her without alimony to her.

Meanwhile the Elizabeth Foundation over which Hubbard had never had power beyond his personality, sold itself to one Don G. Purcell, an oilman in Kansas.

Purcell moved the Foundation to Wichita, Kansas and Hubbard, having completed his book, went to Kansas to settle various affairs.

Considering that Purcell wished only to make money from Dianetics, Hubbard sought to reform the attitude of the Foundation To accomplish this he supported himself in Kansas by writing and lecturing and finally, after a few months, unable

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to bring about a good public presence on the part of the Foundation and Purcell, he resigned from all connections in early 1952 and refused Purcell and others any further permission to use his name or work.

Purcell’s answer was to file for bankruptcy within one month conceiving that the Foundations could not continue without Hubbard’s support. Purcell bought the Foundations from bankruptcy as his personal property shortly after and continued them in business, but, unable to use Hubbard’s name or additional work, the organization The Dianetics Foundation of Kansas came to exist only as a shell, quite inactive today.

After resigning in early 1952, Hubbard came to Phoenix to visit his parents, liked the city and with his wife Mary Sue whom he married early in 1952, settled here. He opened a quiet office which became that fall (1952) the Hubbard Association of Scientologists. He had reverted “Dianetics” back to its original name, Scientology.

This organization was founded by some five hundred people in various parts of the world who had long been interested in Hubbard’s work. Publishing a few books locally and issuing twice a month, the Journal of Scientology, the HAS has continued a quiet carrer [sic] in Arizona. It has opened up branch offices in Camden, New Jersey and London, England. Th[?] association exists to publish material related to behavior to train qualified people in Scientology.

The HAS is the first organization in the field of “Dianetics” and Scientology to be controlled by Hubbard. It pays its bills promptly as any Phoenix business firm with which it deals can attest. Although any organization dealing with behaviour can attract hangers-on, there has been no consequently of this in the HAS. Hubbard’s policy of quiet, orderly business and investigation is clearly manifested in the gneral [sic] good repute of the HAS in Phoenix.

In so far as possible the HAS has sought to associate itself with steady and reliable people. It does permit its name and the name Scientology to be used by autonomous organizations, Such, called associates or groups, exist in many ci[?] They use HAS materials and pay a membership fee but otherwise have no connection. Whey [sic] they err financially or seem to hurt HAS repute, their membership is cancelled. This has happened recently in Los Angeles. The HAS has no other control over such persons.

The addresses of the HAS are 806 North Third Street Phoenix, Arizona, 507 Market Street, Camden, New Jersey, 163 Holland Park Avenue, London, England. The Camden and London offices are run by committees.

The HAS, under the management of Hubbard, has a two year record of good repute and responsibility. It is aware, as is Hubbard, that the 1950 blatant use of Hubbard’s name by early Foundations has often reflected against HAS progress. It is aware of the mountains of publicity generated by the sudden and strange popularity of a book. The HAS is also awa[?] that it is the first organization controlled by Hubbard and t[?] it enjoys good public reputation as well as good credit. It is content to pay its way, has no great ambition to riches and builds solidly as it goes.

The HAS recently rented quarters at 401-A East Roosevelt and 616 North Third Street. The latter address was once occupied by a psychologist, Dr. Gordon Beckstead, who was in no way connected with the HAS.

Awakening recently to the fact that many of its interested people were ministers, the HAS has assisted them to form churches such as the Church of American Science and the Church of Scientology. Also, when friends of Hubbard in Europe

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pointed out to him that the home organization of psycho-analysis, the Freudian Institute of Vienna, was now in the Russian zone of Austria and desired removal, Hubbard helped finance the organization of the Freudian Foundation of America” to be offered to those in Vienna should they desire to avail themselves of it. In the latter and in the churches, the HAS has no further control or interest.

As Scientology is proving it can do much for disabled veterans and others such as they, the HAS may soon make Scientology available to the disabled as a public service.

The HAS business gross is about $10,000 a month. It has no profits or dividends. It finances the processing, with Scientology of indigent and disabled people.

There is no broadly stated medical opinion of Scientology, mainly because it does not in any way intend or pretend to encroach upon medicine. Its field in [sic] the study of Knowledge itself and its benefits are more closely allied to philosophy and religion than to medicine or psychology. If one “gets well” in the process of knowing more about himself or Mankind the benefit derived from knowledge gained, not treatment received.

Aside from offering public services, the firm two-year policy of the HAS will continue to be followed. To neither defend nor attack on the public stage but to keep [illegible words] house, financially and ethically sound.

Sincerely,

Board of Directors
Hubbard Association of Scientologists

[signed] John Galusha
by John Galusha, Secretary

Notes

  1. Galusha, J., (1954, 12 June). Letter to the FBI. Retrieved on 19 March 2010 from http://www.xenu.net/archive/FBI/fbi-124.html. ↩

by

Lecture: Know to Sex Scale: The Mind and the Tone Scale (1954)

[A]fter he [Freud] worked there on mystery for a long time, why he got up into sex. And then he stressed sex very heavily, and before he had gone too long with his libido theory, he discovered himself into the eatingness band. And the, he parked psychiatry right there as of 1924.

For instance, William Allen White once said to me, “Well I don’t think that this sexual fixation which Freud had was entirely embracive of everything, because it’s obvious that if you put somebody down at the table who was very hungry. A man, let’s say, we put him at a table. He’s very hungry. And we stand a naked woman in front of him. And we put a plate of food before him, that he would eat the food. And maybe he, after he has eaten the food, why he will become interested in the woman. But he will not become interested in the woman until he’s eaten the food. So it’s very obvious that eating has more to do with the problem than sex.”

Well that was William Allen White, he’s a very brilliant man. He was the director of St. Elizabeths. But; that’s the government institution. He nevertheless though, they just stopped right there. They had observations, and the big argument was whether or not eating or sex formed the basic line. And the funny part of it was, is they never looked back at mystery again. Neither did Freud. He fooled around with his oedipus complexes and so forth, and didn’t realize he would be in far more of a mystery than anybody could possibly assimilate.

[…]

We look over their own histories, all the people engaged in that. Jung, Adler, Freud himself, and so forth. And we don’t find any of these men anything like sympathetic toward activity. They, they, by the way, you see, I knew, I knew people, and the people who were trained by these people. And, if there was anything they were in awe of, it was somebody who engaged in sports. So this fellow was phenomenal to them. They knew this was very good somehow or another, but they couldn’t quite put their finger on it.

And to this day it is enough to tell a psychiatrist that, and prove to him, that you are very energetic and engaged in sports, to have him dismiss you immediately as being completely sane. Only that’s just, bing. He just says, “Well, I…” He just goes into apathy right at that point. That’s the truth.

The…it was an interesting thing, for instance, to William Allen White. And Commander Thompson. Both of them, where I was concerned, that I wasn’t very interested in sitting around figuring about this stuff, and didn’t seem to be terribly interested in the insane. And I still wanted to know something about the human mind and how it worked.

You see, a mind mis-working was their level of acceptance. And just knowing how a mind worked, as a piece of information, was quite different. This was a different look. An entirely different look. And they decided that I could never possibly have been serious, or never at any time was really serious about it, most of the time because I spoke jokingly, rather facetiously about some of these things.

And particularly because I was always tearing around the countryside doing something in the field of sports. If I was to be located anyplace it’d be down on the golf links, at least. And they couldn’t be found down on the golf links themselves.1

Notes

  1. Hubbard, L. R. (1954, 4 June). Know To Sex Scale: The Mind And The Tone Scale. Sixth American Advanced Clinical Course,   (6ACC-37). Phoenix, Arizona. ↩