kimerajamm
Joined: 28 Nov 2010
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 Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2011 3:39 am Post subject: Dianetics was not cheap |
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Hubbard called Dianetics "a milestone for man comparable to his discovery of fire and superior to his invention of the wheel and the arch," It was an immediate commercial success and sparked what Martin Gardner calls "a nation-wide cult of incredible proportions".[144] By August 1950, Hubbard's book had sold 55,000 copies, was selling at the rate of 4,000 a week and was being translated into French, German and Japanese. Five hundred Dianetic auditing groups had been set up across the United States.[145]
Dianetics was poorly received by the press and the scientific and medical professions.[145] The American Psychological Association criticized Hubbard's claims as "not supported by empirical evidence".[51] Scientific American said that Hubbard's book contained "more promises and less evidence per page than any publication since the invention of printing",[146] while The New Republic called it a "bold and immodest mixture of complete nonsense and perfectly reasonable common sense, taken from long acknowledged findings and disguised and distorted by a crazy, newly invented terminology".[147] Some of Hubbard's fellow science fiction writers also criticized it; Isaac Asimov considered it "gibberish"[63] while Jack Williamson called it "a lunatic revision of Freudian psychology".[148]
Several famous individuals became involved with Dianetics. Aldous Huxley received auditing from Hubbard himself,[149] the poet Jean Toomer[150] and the science fiction writers Theodore Sturgeon[151] and A. E. van Vogt became trained Dianetics auditors. Van Vogt temporarily abandoned writing and became the head of the newly established Los Angeles branch of the Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation. Other branches were established in New York, Washington D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles, and Honolulu.[152][153]
Although Dianetics was not cheap, a great many people were nonetheless willing to pay; van Vogt later recalled "doing little but tear open envelopes and pull out $500 checks from people who wanted to take an auditor's course."[152] Financial controls were lax. Hubbard himself withdrew large sums with no explanation of what he was doing with it. On one occasion, van Vogt saw Hubbard taking a lump sum of $56,000 (equivalent to $0.5 million at 2010 prices) out of the Los Angeles Foundation's proceeds.[152] One of Hubbard's employees, Helen O'Brien, commented that at the Elizabeth, N.J. branch of the Foundation the books showed that "a month's income of $90,000 is listed, with only $20,000 accounted for."Automatic Sanitizer Dispenser
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