Piety and Family in Early Modern Europe: Essays in Honour of Steven Ozment Book

The reviews here are largely based on the bipolar division into the scientology apologists, on the one hand, and the anti-scientology bigots, on the other hand. I consider myself neither.

This book contains fabrications, inventions, unsubstantiated claims and outright falsehoods.
It is the beginning of what, probably, started out as L.Ron Hubbard's conscious plan to start a cult based on himself, on his grandiose intellectual fantasies, and on his not-inconsiderable skills as a prose writer and armchair philosopher. This book is an example of all of those things.

Dianetics is the embryo out of which scientology grew. It contains the nuts and bolts of auditing (the process of dianetic therapy) and the basic terms of what later became the cult - and religion - of scientology, although still in the secular guise of self-help procedures and a kind of do-it-yourself, mock-up psychotherapy whose aim is the alleviation of ALL non-physical ailments of man and of ALL psychosomatic illnesses, and the achievement of the (rather improbable but alluring and fascinating) state of "Clear": a kind of perfectly rational, clear-headed Randian/Nietzschean class of "supermen" who are entirely without any hang-ups or other "normal-human" problems.

Such grandiose claims are, of course, without merit, but they are only one side of the coin.

The other side of the coin - the one that fascinates me - is the story of "what could have been": namely, how great a philosopher and thinker L.Ron Hubbard COULD have been, had he only been less - well, greedy and evil, I suppose.

The fabrication of physical "engrams" and the gnostic fantasy of the superhuman "clear" are only a twisted vesion of a true and perfectly reasonable philosophy hidden within the core of the book.

There are glimpses of his greatness in the book. The first half of the book is a kind of continuation of the work of centuries of moral philosophy aimed at the gradual perfection of man, combined with the modern science of Social Darwinist and psychological approaches to human life and human consciousness. The result is a reasonaby interesting thesis about the functioning of the human body. I find it very convincing. The bulk of the document, the root, is solid. Only the tree that grows out of it is rotten and murky. L.R. Hubbard unfortunately doesn't stick with solid reality but enters into science fiction territory as soon as you can say "c-h-a-r-l-a-t-a-n"!

The sad fact is that Hubbard was not content to stick within clear-headed thinking, and instead followed the more selfish and self-serving urge (common to all confidence men) to "spice up" his sound philosophical ideas (most of which, to be sure, he borrowed from others, like Freud and Spencer) with a lot of outrageous nonsense and cultish fanaticism, to make it more sellable and appealing to desperate readers looking for a quick fix. This makes the whole book feel like a missed opportunity.

Of course, superficially the book was anything but a missed opportunity. After all, it spawned a whole religion and has sold millions upon millions of copies. But in the end, it is the sort of book that, in a hundred yeears, will be forgotten. It will never rank a great leap in human thinking, or achieve the sort of intellectual fame that Hubbard probably, despite all his BS, deep-down wanted. So Hubbard's story is more tragic than it appears. He COULD have been one of the most important thinkers of the 20th century. He had the brains and the writing skills and the charisma for it. Instead, he chose to be one of the most popular deceivers of mankind of the 20th century. That sordid business, to be sure, takes dedication. But it also means he missed the boat to greatness. He doomed himself to oblivion through a comet-rise to temporary fame.

I find it a sad but compelling story. The tale spun by the history of what followed is the story of a tragic man who couldn't choose between fiction and fact, and chose to blend the two in the most ingenuous - and arguably evil - way possible. He wanted to be Mohammed or Moses for the 20th century. He also wanted to be the Tolkien of psychology and the beloved of the rich and famous. He learned all the wrong lessons from Aleister Crowley. He took only the beastly aspects of the man and emulated his selfish pursuit of fame, ignoring Crowley's love of truth. He wanted to be a creator of worlds. The fact that he almost succeeded is a mind-boggling feat. It is also a cautionary tale of the lure of power and the cost of fame. Such fame is a devil's bargain. Hubbard stepped into the world of dreams and fiction and purposefully destroyed his own reputation in exchange of a few gold coins - and a few million gleamy-eyed followers!

But all of this does NOT negate the fact that Dianetics is a worthy book to study and read. It contains clever insights into the nature of the human condition. The combination of Darwinism and Freudianism is beautiful. It is the desktop writings of an almost-genius level of a thinker. It is ALMOST a science, it is ALMOST a psychology, it is ALMOST a philosophy of man worthy of the promised revolution of thought. And even though it is ONLY ALMOST all of those things, it still contains more than a few nuggets of real gold and philosophical insight - hidden within the steaming pile of malicious, cult-spawning manure.

Recommended with the caveat: upon first encountering this pile of dung, watch where you put your spoon, and don't eat the manure. Set it aside and dig for the ice cream and creamy goodness within. It exists. It is good. It is sad. It is beautiful. Taste it. Feel it. "Build a better bridge!" to quote the very last words of the book.

Learn from Hubbard, learn from Hitler, learn from Faust: when the devil comes, don't sell your soul.