Dianetics
in the 21st Century

The history of Dianetics has just begun. What other things begin with the origin of a science of the mind only tomorrow can tell.

Thus L. Ron Hubbard prepared his readers for advancements he knew would surely follow, and thus we present this follow-up history of Dianetics in the 21st century.

Appropriately, that history begins with the May 9th 1950 publication of Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, and what was rightfully described as a national Dianetics storm. Among other barometers of the day were 750 auditing groups spontaneously forming across America, and many thousands more embarking into Terra Incognita as the title continued topping a New York Times bestseller list. Also forming in a whirlwind of enthusiasm beyond the spring of 1950 were the far-flung Dianetics Research Foundations where L. Ron Hubbard lectured, instructed and otherwise met a staggering popular demand. Nevertheless, and precisely as promised in his own closing chapter of Dianetics, further research was most definitely soon underway—and expressly in accord with what he enumerated as Plan B: a concerted investigation into the life force.

The subject is immense and the research trail exhaustive. But suffice it to say, within the space of twelve months, L. Ron Hubbard had indeed identified an animating force within every living thing. This he called Theta, and distinguished it as energy existing separate and distinct from the physical universe as we know it. In that regard, Theta was a chink in a wall beyond which lay another realm entirely of Terra Incognita. It was also a signpost to a most intriguing statement in his discussion of The Cell and the Organism (Book Two, Chapter Three). That is:

“Unless we postulate a human soul entering the sperm and ovum at conception, there are things which no other postulate will embrace than that these cells are in some way sentient.”

The first leg of such research culminated in mid-1951 with the publication of L. Ron Hubbard’s next book on Dianetics, Science of Survival. That the book is built upon a Hubbard Chart of Human Evaluation by which one can unerringly predict human behavior and pinpoint proper case entrance is also, of course, significant; for here were the first of the technical refinements postulated in Dianetics.

Meanwhile, L. Ron Hubbard most definitely succeeded in developing a “very sensitive galvanometer” with which to measure then unknown human energy output. In fact, this was the first in a long line of developing electropsychometers, better known today as the E-Meter, and measuring mental state or change of state. Thus, in Dianetics terms, E-Meters were soon employed to pinpoint engrams with unimaginable speed and precision.

Yet the farthest ends of L. Ron Hubbard’s research beyond the spring of 1950 followed from that larger Plan C:

“An effort to discover a higher echelon of universal origin and destination.”

Needless to say, the subject is commensurately vast, and ultimately involved no less than an actual measurement of that postulated human soul. (For the record, the first such valuation was conducted with an electropsychometer in Wichita, Kansas through late 1951 with additional tests in Phoenix, Arizona through 1952.) Also needless to say, the results of those tests would fill many another L. Ron Hubbard volume, but the long and short is this: Within two years of authoring Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, L. Ron Hubbard became the first to scientifically isolate and identify the human spirit.

This, then, is the subject of Scientology as founded by L. Ron Hubbard in 1952. It literally means “knowing how to know,” and is defined as “the study and handling of the spirit in relationship to itself, universes and other life.” It both extends from and embraces the central truths of Dianetics, and is thus a fully practical religion. In point of fact, just as you have now glimpsed the State of Clear, so Scientology presents a step-by-step route to even higher states—states not even previously imagined, but nonetheless absolutely real. In that regard, Scientology is that better Bridge L. Ron Hubbard called for when concluding Dianetics. Scientology is that wide and solid route to a vastly higher plateau.

In no way, however, did the story of Dianetics conclude with the founding of Scientology. For as L. Ron Hubbard further predicted:

“The application methods cannot but be refined.”

Accordingly, and specifically toward still faster preclear progress he developed advanced Dianetics procedures. Those procedures are now available in Churches of Scientology world over and, in consequence, there are now tens of thousands of Clears across more than a hundred nations.

Also in consequence to the greater advancement of Dianetics is all that now stands as “conventional wisdom” as regards the human mind: the universally standard medical dictionary enjoining physicians, “Nothing [should be] said in the patient’s presence that the patient should not hear, because the unresponsive patient is still aware of surroundings and can hear what is said,” or the London Sunday Times similarly cautioning medicos, “Anesthetized patients often hear subconsciously everything that is said during operations and can suffer ill effects as a result.” Then there is the Natural Childbirth Movement recommending silent birthing, while whole schools of medical thought are at last subscribing to the fact that prenatal experience significantly shapes personality.

Finally—and herein lies the other side of the Dianetics story beyond the spring of 1950—there is all the book has come to represent as a worldwide movement unto itself. In a word, there has been no more popular handbook of its kind in history. Since original publication, Dianetics has seen translation into more than fifty languages and appeared on some 600 bestseller lists.

Decades after its first publication, it not only earned the Publishers Weekly Century Award for an unprecedented 100 weeks on its bestseller list, it also returned to the New York Times bestseller list. Moreover, that popularity is entirely universal, with Dianetics Foundations, organizations and grass-roots groups from Asia to Africa and all across the Americas and Europe—more than 160 nations in all. To cite but a few representative examples: there are Tibetan monasteries where Dianetics now replaces introspective meditation, and universities where Dianetics has all but supplanted psychology. There are additionally hundreds of state and city offices now proclaiming May 9th as “Dianetics Day,” and the Random House Modern Library Reader’s poll ranking the book among the ten most significant nonfiction works of the 20th century. While as we continue into this 21st century, a new reader picks up a copy somewhere in the world every 4.8 seconds, and so embarks upon the journey of Dianetics.

How far and how fast one progresses on that journey is, of course, one’s own choice. But there are now Dianetics seminars and courses in thousands of Dianetics groups now established world over, not to mention every Scientology church and mission—and all to speed you towards the personal realization of everything written in Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health.

Today, Dianetics is thriving as part of the fastest growing religion in the world. Hundreds of Churches of Scientology with Hubbard Dianetics Foundations exist worldwide.

Dianetics is the solution to the problems we face personally and as a society. In a world where race is pitted against race, nation against nation, where sudden violence shatters lives, where friends and family suffer pain, confusion and unhappiness, the book reveals the one common source and Man’s true natural enemy—the reactive mind. And it provides the only technology to get rid of it.

It has stood the test of time, changing lives everywhere for more than half a century.

The time has come for you, too, to start the adventure. Contact your local Dianetics Foundation or the Church of Scientology (see Locator) and begin walking the road to a better life today. And may you never be the same again.