Editing Dianetics (section)

==Therapeutic claims==

{{Blockquote |text=The slick craftsman of mass-production science-fiction, mustering his talents and energies for a supreme effort, produces [...] a fictional science. Had dianetics been presented as fiction [...] it might have been, like other ingenious science-fiction, good entertainment. |author=[[S. I. Hayakawa]]{{r|hayakawa|page=281}} }}

In August 1950, amidst the success of ''[[Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health|Dianetics]]'', Hubbard held a demonstration in Los Angeles' [[Shrine Auditorium]] where he presented a young woman called Sonya Bianca (a pseudonym) to a large audience including many reporters and photographers as "the world's first [[Clear (Scientology)|Clear]]".  Despite Hubbard's claim that she had "full and perfect recall of every moment of her life", Bianca proved unable to answer questions from the audience testing her memory and analytical abilities, including the question of the color of Hubbard's tie.  Hubbard explained Bianca's failure to display her promised powers of recall to the audience by saying that he had used the word "now" in calling her to the stage, and thus inadvertently froze her in "present time", which blocked her abilities.{{r|miller|pages=165–166}}{{r|atack|pages=114–115}} Later, in the late 1950s, Hubbard would claim that several people had reached the state of Clear by the time he presented Bianca as the world's first; these others, Hubbard said, he had successfully cleared in the late 1940s while working ''incognito'' in Hollywood posing as a [[swami]].<ref>{{cite speech| first=L. Ron| last=Hubbard| title=The Story of Dianetics and Scientology |type=Lecture | date=18 October 1958| quote=I went right down in the middle of Hollywood, I rented an office, got ahold of a nurse, wrapped a towel around my head and became a swami. And I said—oddly enough, I gave nobody my name, I didn't say what I was doing, and by 1947, I had achieved clearing.}}</ref> In 1966, Hubbard declared South African Scientologist John McMaster to be the first true Clear.<ref>{{cite magazine|first=Alan|last=Levy|title=Scientology|magazine=[[Life (magazine)|Life]]|date=15 November 1968}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|first=Wendy|last=Michener|title=Is This the Happiest Man in the World?|journal=[[Maclean's]]|date=22 August 1966}}</ref>

Hubbard claimed, in an interview with ''[[The New York Times]]'' in November 1950, that "he had already submitted proof of claims made in the book to a number of scientists and associations." He added that the public as well as proper organizations were entitled to such proof and that he was ready and willing to give such proof in detail.<ref name="freeman">{{Cite news |title=Psychologists Act Against Dianetics; Claims Made for New Therapy Not Backed by Empirical Evidence, Group Says Offered Proof, Says Author |work=The New York Times |date=9 September 1950 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1950/09/09/archives/psychologists-act-against-dianetics-claims-made-for-new-therapy-not.html |url-access=subscription |first=Lucy |last=Freeman |author-link=Lucy Freeman}}</ref> In January 1951, the Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation of [[Elizabeth, New Jersey]], published ''Dianetic Processing: A Brief Survey of Research Projects and Preliminary Results'', a booklet providing the results of psychometric tests conducted on 88 people undergoing Dianetics therapy. It presents case histories and a number of [[X-ray]] plates to support claims that Dianetics had cured "aberrations" including [[Bipolar disorder|manic depression]], asthma, [[arthritis]], [[colitis]] and "overt homosexuality", and that after Dianetic processing, test subjects experienced significantly increased scores on a standardized IQ test. The report's subjects are not identified by name, but one of them is clearly Hubbard himself ("Case 1080A, R. L.").<ref name="ibanez">{{cite book |last1=Ibanez |first1=Dalmyra |last2=Southon |first2=Gordon |last3=Southon |first3=Peggy |last4=Benton |first4=Peggy |title=Dianetic Processing: A Brief Survey of Research Projects and Preliminary Results |publisher=Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation |year=1951 |page=36}}</ref>

The authors provide no qualifications, although they are described in Hubbard's book ''Science of Survival'' (where some results of the same study were reprinted) as psychotherapists. Critics of Dianetics are skeptical of this study, both because of the bias of the source and because the researchers appear to ascribe all physical benefits to Dianetics without considering possible outside factors; in other words, the report lacks any [[scientific control]]s. Winter was originally an associate of Hubbard and an early adopter of Dianetics, but by the end of 1950 had cut ties with Hubbard and written an account of his personal experiences with Dianetics.{{r|winter|p=39}} He described Hubbard as "absolutistic and authoritarian",<ref name=departure/> and criticized the Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation for failing to undertake "precise scientific research into the functioning of the mind".{{r|winter|p=40}} He also recommended that auditing be done by experts only and that it was dangerous for laymen to audit each other.<ref name=departure>{{cite news | title = Departure in Dianetics | url = http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,821638,00.html | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071114123503/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,821638,00.html | url-status = dead | archive-date = 14 November 2007 | magazine = Time | date = 3 September 1951 | access-date = 14 February 2008 }}</ref> Hubbard writes: "Again, Dianetics is not being released to a profession, for no profession could encompass it."{{r|hubbard-dmsmh|p=168}}