Dunno Much Scientology
Regis Nicoll
The making of a religion
In 1950, sci-fi writer L. Ron Hubbard published Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, debunking traditional psychotherapy. According to Hubbard, all man's ills, from wrinkles to cancer, are due to past traumatic experiences called engrams.
The dianetic technique involves "clearing" embedded engrams through an "auditing" process. Once "clear," a person is liberated to experience increased levels of self-actualization. The whole process is both long (decades to a lifetime) and expensive (hundreds of thousands of dollars).
Dianetics quickly became a bestseller. Yet, by 1954, Hubbard's funds began drying up. It was around that time Hubbard founded the Church of Scientology. In a candid interview in 1983, Hubbard's son admitted that his father's motive was money: "He told me and a lot of other people that the way to make a million was to start a religion." Hubbard manufactured his religion by taking the principles of Dianetics and expanding them from the physical and psychological to the spiritual.
Read the entire article on the Crux Magazine website (new window will open).