FROM THE FILES OF THE FBI #17
2 - Origin [________] duplicate
1 - Yellow
1 - Liaison Section
1 - Mr. Fitzgerald
62-94080
Date: January 8, 1958
To: [BLACKED OUT]
From: John Edgar Hoover, Director
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Subject: HUBBARD ASSOCIATION OF
SCIENTOLOGISTS, INTERNATIONAL
MISCELLANEOUS-INFORMATION CONCERNING
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Our files indicate considerable information concerning the
captioned organization, its founder L. Ron Hubbard, whose full name
is reflected in files of the Department of State as Lafayette
Ronald Hubbard, and concerning several associated organizations.
However, this Bureau has not conducted any investigation regarding
Hubbard or the captioned organization.
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1 - London
1 - Foreign Liaison Unit (detached)
JMF:pwf (7)
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L. Ron Hubbard was the founder and president of the Hubbard
Dianetic Research Foundation, Inc. (HDRF), which was incorporated
in New Jersey during April, 1950.
The December 5, 1950, issue of "Look" magazine contained as
article entitled "Dianetics - Science or Hoax?" which reflected
that L. Ron Hubbard was an obscure writer of pseudoscientific pulp
fiction prior to the publishing of his book entitled "Dianetics."
Hubbard's book asserts that "the creation of dianetics is a
milestone for Man comparable to his discovery of fire and superior
to his inventions of the wheel and the arch...the intelligent
layman can sucessfully [sic] and invariably treat all psychosomatic
ills and inorganic aberrations," according to Hubbard. "These
psychosomatic ills, uniformly cured by dianetic therapy, include
such varied maladies as eye trouble, bursitis, ulcers, some heart
difficulties, migraine headaches and the common cold." According to
the article, Hubbard's book has "outraged scores of psychiatrists,
biochemists, psychologists, physicians and just-plain-ordinary
scientists, who look upon the astounding claims and the growing
commercial success of this strange new phenomenon with awe, fear
and a deep disgust... Hubbard's greatest attraction to the troubled
is that his ersatz psychiatry is available to all. It's cheap. It's
accessible. It's a public festival to be played at clubs and
parties."
During March, 1951, the Board of Medical Examiners, State of New
Jersey, had a case against the HDRF scheduled for trial on the
grounds that the organization was conducting a school, teaching a
branch of medicine and surgery, without a license.
In 1951 the HDRF established national headquarters at Wichita,
Kansas, and sponsored the Allied Scientists of the World, which
organization had as its avowed purpose "to construct and stock a
library...in an atomic proof area where
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the culture and technology of the United States could be stored
in a state of use by science and preserve it in case of attack."
(62-95972)
The April 24, 1951, issue of the "Times Herald," Washington,
D.C. reflected that Hubbard's wife charged in a divorce suit that
"competent medical advisors recommended that Hubbard be committed
to a private sanitarium for psychiatric observation and treatment
of a mental ailment known as paranoid schizophrenia.
Allegedly during 1952, Hubbard formed the Hubbard Association of
Scientologists, an Arizona corporation, and reverted "dianetics"
back to it original name, "scientology." Thereafter, offices were
opened in New Jersey and London, England.
During the early part of 1956, HDRF, Silver Spring, Maryland,
was circulating a pamphlet entitled "Brain-Washing, A Synthesis of
the Russian Textbook on Psychopolitics." According to the book,
psychopolitics is the "art and science of asserting and maintaining
dominion over the thoughts and loyalties of individuals, officers,
bureaus, and masses, and the effecting of the conquest of enemy
actions through mental health.'"
Hubbard has corresponded with this Bureau and the Department
of Justice on several occasions for various reasons, including
complaints about his wife and about alleged communists. In one
lengthy letter in May, 1951, it is perhaps noteworthy that Hubbard
stated that while he was in his apartment on February 23, 1951,
about two or three o'clock in the morning his apartment was
entered. He was knocked out. A needle was thrust into his heart to
produce a coronary thrombosis and he was given an electric shock.
He said his recollection of this incident was now very blurred,
that he had no witnesses and that the only other person who had
a key to the apartment was his wife.
Hubbard and various organizations with which he has been
associated have been the subjects of numerous inquiries and
complaints directed to this Bureau. He and
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his organizations have operated in various parts of the country.
Under date of October 8, 1957, we received a letter from Richard F.
Steves, "Organizations Secretary" of "Scientology, United States,
the Academy of Scientology," 1812 - 19th Street, Northwest,
Washington, D.C. This letter requested that the Bureau investigate
an individual allegedly representing himself as a "dianetic
auditor" though not associated with any "Dianetic" or "Scientology"
organization. The letter requested that this person be investigated
as to communist activities. The letterhead listed seventeen
associated organizations and publications including the captioned
organization. Three of the associated organizations are purported
churches of scientology. Also listed as associate groups are the
Hubbard Guidance Center, Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation,
Hubbard Research Foundation, and Hubbard Communications Office.
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