A SUMMARY ON SCIENTOLOGY FOR SCIENTISTS
by L. Ron Hubbard
(continued)
The Second World War and service was a long interruption. But in 1945 I was back at research again, using the library and facilities of Oak Knoll Naval Hospital.
In under a year, by use of endocrine experiments, on the basis that the endocrines are a switchboard of stimulus-response, I found that function seemed to monitor structure in living forms.
As the reverse had been held to be true (and had not provided a breakthrough), I was therefore able to proceed now in a new direction.
I found eventually that Life increased in potential by the stripping away of additives. This meant I could possibly be on the road to isolating life as a pure force.
Working with small energies, I eventually found the mental energy seemed to be a band between life and emotion and what might be a pure life essence.
In handling this I found the mental energy was made up of mental image pictures and that these became jammed together into masses until the commodity known as life became nearly extinguished.
By unburdening these (by a method of erasure), I found life potential increased.
This became Dianetics (Dia—through, nous—mind).
As it had a connection with psychosomatic illness, I offered the discoveries and papers on them to leading healing societies and was rebuffed! They had nothing to do with basic research!
A medical associate and a psychiatric publisher told me I had only the public left, so I wrote a book and it became surprisingly popular.
Just before this publication the US Navy’s Office of Naval Research approached me and made a threatening offer that I must go to work for them as a civilian or be recalled to active duty. The project was to make people more suggestible. I was able to resign before they could complete the threat. While I had no complaint about real active service, I had already done a prewar tour of duty in Washington offices and knew I could get little done there and I had no ambition to make people more suggestible.
This was the second and last contact regarding any research aid.
I had applied earlier for funds to foundations and none were available for basic research. Few understood at that time that basic research had any value. Only specific projects for specific products qualified.
A group formed to handle the popularity of the book, Dianetics. Yet it provided no research assistance beyond testing vitamins.
I had been willing to leave the project at that time. In fact I had another expedition scheduled. But the impact of the book carried along with it one of those savage parallel attacks sometimes experienced by researchers which threw my life into chaos. An attempt was made on my life, I narrowly escaped kidnapping and I was loudly berated for misdeeds I had never committed. Seldom has there ever been such a heavy change in a man’s life. I was a well-liked writer on Monday and on Tuesday was a horrible beast. Same man.
A scientist releasing his material to the public or seeking to advise his fellows of some discovery sometimes finds a poor ally in the press.
For years the most unusual and imaginary charges were hurled at me. Reporters never came near me. They just wrote about me.
It was hardly an atmosphere in which to continue research, but at great stress and out of responsibility to a public who supported me, I did so.
Fifteen years after that first public release I was able to develop the full technology that would isolate a being as a pure life force. It was the person himself. And far stronger and more capable.
In the following two years, despite the heavy stresses of administration and the same unseen force that kept striking at me on public lines, I was able to stably attain the result uniformly for people in technology known as Scientology processing.