FROM THE FILES OF THE FBI #44
1 - Mr. Brown
December 14, 1960
L. RON HUBBARD
[BLACKED OUT]
[BLACKED OUT PARAGRAPH]
No investigation has been conducted concerning either Hubbard or
[BLACKED OUT] Our files contain no information identifiable with
[BLACKED OUT] however, our files do reveal the following
information which may relate to L. Ron Hubbard.
The December 5, 1950, issue of "Look" magazine contained an
article entitled "Dianetics - Science or Hoax?" which revealed 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 successfully 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
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."
ORIGINAL AND 1 TO CIA
Request Received: 12/8/60
JWB:jes
(4)
This document contains neither recommendations nor conclusions
of the FBI. It is the property of the FBI, and is loaned to your
agency; it and its contents are not to be distributed outside your
agency. This is in answer to your request for a check of FBI files.
[page 2]
L. Ron Hubbard
[BLACKED OUT]
The April 24, 1951, issue of the "Washington Times Herald"
contained an article with a date line Los Angeles, California,
indicating that Hubbard's wife, in suing for divorce, claimed he
was "hopelessly insane" and had subjected her to "scientific
torture experiments." According to the article, "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." It was alleged in this
article that the Hubbard Association of Scientologists
International was one of the organizations headed by Hubbard. He
was also President and founder of the Hubbard Dianetic Research
Foundation, Inc. (HDRF). The article further related that the HDRF
dealt with a "medical science of mental health" and did more than a
million dollars business in 1950.
Individuals who have been connected with the organizations
headed by Hubbard or who have had contact with him and the
organizations, have indicated the Hubbard is a "crackpot" and of
"doubtful mental background."
[BLACKED OUT PARAGRAPH]
- 2 -
