Introduction to Dianetics: The Original Thesis

Let's start before the beginning.

There is a disclaimer on the very first page of the book, as soon as you open the cover. It's entitled "TO THE READER" and states...

This book is presented in its original form and is part of L. Ron Hubbard's religious literature and works and is not a statement of claims made by the author, publisher, or any Church of Scientology. It is a record of Mr. Hubbard's observations and research into life and the nature of man.

Neither Dianetics nor Scientology is offered as, nor professes to be spiritual healing, nor is any claim made to that effect. The Church does not accept individuals who desire treatment of physical or mental illness but, instead, requires a competent medical examination for physical conditions, by qualified specialists, before addressing their spiritual cause.

Let's play a game of "What's Wrong with This Picture?"

First of all, the book is NOT presented in its original form. In 2007, David Miscavige, the Chairman of the Board of the Religious Technology Center - essentially, the current Head of the Church of Scientology - authorized a dramatic overhaul of every book in the Basics collection, including this one. This means that the book I have is not the original representation of it. Scientologists would most likely argue that this is the book as Hubbard would want us to read it, but I'll get to that later.

Secondly, there's no evidence that the Church requires a medical exam like that before beginning, and even if they did, it'd be by their own staff under their own rules. Most of the time, they just randomly pick people off from the street. The rest of the points I'll come back to later on.

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Another page before the true beginning of the book is entitled "An Important Note", and is nearly duplicated in every book in the Basics series, in a few different forms. The essential meaning of this section is to say that you should be careful in not going past a word that you don't understand, lest you not understand the rest of the teachings afterwards.

This is L. Ron Hubbard's kinder way of saying, "You don't like the way I say this stuff? Eff you, it's your fault! You read past a term that I made up on the fly, and didn't take another minute out of your life to flip to the glossary in the back of the book, read the definition (which I also made up), go back to before you read the word, and then finish reading? No wonder you're a suppressive!"

There's also a section on glossaries; there are two glossaries in this book, one based on L. Ron Hubbard's terms, and one based on general words. This little blurb in the beginning replaces a similar one on footnotes. I think this is the only good thing I can say about the "Golden Age of Technology" revisions; having once tried to read the original Dianetics, there have been pages where there were only five lines in a paragraph, and the rest is filled completely with footnotes, and some of the footnotes were of the most abysmally simple things!

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The introduction is only a page long, and yet we can find plenty of inaccuracies. The introduction is written in 1948 (or rather that's the date given; I'm not trusting Hubbard's word even that far), and Hubbard spends a bit of time describing the events from 1932 to 1948 in gathering the information needed to form Dianetics. He starts working in 1932, discovers the Primary Law ("Survive!") in 1938, then proceeds to study it further until his wartime service begins.

At this point, Hubbard makes reference to "Certain experiences during the war", which is certain to be concluded as his infamous story of having been blinded in battle, being brought to Oak Knoll Hospital, and then using the powers of his discoveries to heal not just himself but four other wounded soldiers. This is, of course, utter bull; Hubbard's interim at Oak Knoll was due to ulcers, not enemy fire.

So Hubbard carries on research from 1945 onward, and things start piecing together in 1946. Via a "lump-sum disability compensation", he is able to refine the work even further. But wait; wasn't he able to cure himself? Why would he need disability compensation if he wasn't disabled? If the story was true, and he WAS blinded before curing himself, then that would nullify the need to get paid for the injury. Since the story ISN'T true, then I doubt the military would offer compensation to someone who got ulcers. (He was, by the way, dishonorably discharged from the US Military.)

So out of the past four years, he had twenty participants in his studies, and every one of them was apparently cured by his experiments. Notice how he never backs up his info by elaborating or giving references as to what happened. Very persuasive non-existant evidence, L. Ron.

Now let's thumb back to the introductory advisory paragraphs; "This book is...not a statement of claims made by the author, publisher, or any Church of Scientology...Neither Dianetics nor Scientology is offered as, nor professes to be spiritual healing, nor is any claim made to that effect."

Let's catch the Co$ in their little white lie, shall we? What follows is the concluding paragraph from the Introduction.

Dianetics has been found to successfully resolve migraine headaches, ulcers, arthritis, astigmatism, bursitis, stammering, glandular imbalance, asthma, allergies, and other psychosomatic ills. It has also successfully removed any compulsions, repressions, neuroses and psychoses to which it has been applied.

L. Ron Hubbard,
1948

Oh, God. I can hear the Office of Special Affairs (Scientology's own FBI) crapping themselves. Is this a claim? A claim made by their beloved L. Ron Hubbard? It IS! And it's only the first of many, as you will soon see.

Of course, this isn't a claim that it's "Spiritual Healing" either, because they profess that Dianetics is a Science rather than an official part of Scientology (when in reality the two are wound tighter than Tom Cruise and David Miscavige, and those two are TIGHT).

Which brings me to my final point. This particular edition of Dianetics: The Original Thesis was released in 2007, 21 years after the death of L. Ron Hubbard in 1986. Meanwhile, the original version was published in 1951, a year after the release of Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health and 35 years before his death. David Miscavige claimed that the book was missing materials due to the fault of either a transcriptionist or an editor, and that MSMH was the only book that came out the way LRH intended. Meanwhile, Original Thesis is advertised as being first handed around by LRH in manuscript form before being published.

Therefore, if LRH himself wrote this manuscript, and if he lived for thirty-five years after it were published without noticing anything, than there should be no reason for the Church to overhaul the book (or, considering the second point, any books) and force all the Scientologists to buy them AGAIN.

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[NOTE: TL;DR stands for "Too Long; Didn't Read"; this is a special summary section for those who decide not to read through the lengthy text above.]

TL;DR: Scientology and Hubbard have lied several times, and we haven't even begun to really read the book yet.