Scientology's story
1950: Dianetics
L. Ron Hubbard, a prolific science-fiction and adventure writer, published Dianetics in May 1950, presenting it as a new science of the mind.
What happened
L. Ron Hubbard (1911 to 1986) wrote large amounts of pulp fiction in the 1930s and 1940s. In May 1950 he published Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, which became a bestseller and launched Dianetics groups across the United States.
Within a few years Hubbard moved from Dianetics, presented as a science, to Scientology, presented as a religion concerned with the thetan.
Scientology's own words
“Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health”
Title of L. Ron Hubbard's book (1950)
A Bible lens
New teachings arrive with confidence and excitement. Scripture asks us to test them patiently against what God has already said.
11Now these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.
Acts 17:11 (WEB) · context
1Beloved, don’t believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
1 John 4:1 (WEB) · context
Sources
- Scientology source L. Ron Hubbard, Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health (1950).
- Lawrence Wright, Going Clear (2013), part one.