Bare-Faced Messiah, FBI Archives Letter from FBI

From the files of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.

2 - Origin [________] duplicate
1 - Yellow
1 - Liaison Section
1 - Mr. Fitzgerald

62-94080

Date: January 8, 1958

To: [BLACKED OUT]

From: John Edgar Hoover, Director
Federal Bureau of Investigation

Subject: HUBBARD ASSOCIATION OF
SCIENTOLOGISTS, INTERNATIONAL
MISCELLANEOUS-INFORMATIONING CONCERNING

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Our files indicate considerable information concerning the captioned
organization, its founder L. Ron Hubbard, whose full name is reflected
in files of the Department of State as Lafayette Rondald Hubbard, and
concerning several associated organizations. However, this Bureau has
not conducted any investigation regarding Hubbard or the captioned
organization.

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1 - London

1 - Foreign Liaison Unit (detached)

JMF:pwf (7)

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L. Ron Hubbard was the founder and president of the Hubbard Dianetic
Research Foundation, Inc. (HDRF), which was incorporated in New Jersey
during April, 1950.

The December 5, 1950, issue of "Look" magazine contained as article
entitled "Dianetics - Science or Hoax?" which reflected 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 sucessfully [sic] 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 to 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."

During March, 1951, the Board of Medical Examiners, State of New Jersey,
had a case against the HDRF scheduled for trial on the grounds that the
organization was conducting a school, treaching a branch of medicine and
surgery, without a license.

In 1951 the HDRF established national headquarters at Wichita, Kansas,
and sponsored the Allied Scientists of the World, which organization had
as its avowed purpose "to construct and stock a library...in an atomic
proof area where

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the culture and technology of the United States could be stored in a
state of use by science and preserve it in case of attack." (62-95972)

The April 24, 1951, issue of the "Times Herald," Washington, D.C.
reflected that Hubbard's wife charged in a divorce suit that "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.

Allegedly during 1952, Hubbard formed the Hubbard Association of
Scientologists, an Arizona corporation, and reverted "dianetics" back to
it original name, "scientology."  Thereafter, offices were opened in New
Jersey and London, England.

During the early part of 1956, HDRF, Silver Spring, Maryland, was
circulating a pamphlet entitled "Brain-Washing, A Synthesis of the
Russian Textbook on Psychopolitics."  According to the book,
psychopolitics is the "art and science of asserting and maintaining
dominion over the thoughts and loyalties of individuals, officers,
bureaus, and masses, and the effecting of the conquest of enemy actions
through mental health.'"

Hubbard has corresponded with this Bureau and the Department of Justice
on several occasions for various reasons, including complaints about his
wife and about alleged communists.  In one lengthy letter in May, 1951,
it is perhaps noteworthy that Hubbard stated that while he was in his
apartment on February 23, 1951, about two or three o'clock in the
morning his apartment was entered.  He was knocked out.  A needle was
thrust into his heart to produce a coronary thrombosis and he was given
an electric shock. He said his recollection of this incident was now
very blurred, that he had no witnesses and that the only other person
who had a key to the apartment was his wife.

Hubbard and various organizations with which he has been associated have
been the subjects of numerous inquiries and complaints directed to this
Bureau.  He and

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his organizations have operated in various parts of the country.  Under
date of October 8, 1957, we received a letter from Richard F. Steves,
"Organizations Secretary" of "Scientology, United States, the Academy of
Scientology," 1812 - 19th Street, Northwest, Washington, D.C.  This
letter requested that the Bureau investigate an individual allegedly
representing himself as a "dianetic auditor" though not associated with
any "Dianetic" or "Scientology" organization.  The letter requested that
this person be investigated as to communist activities.  The letterhead
listed seventeen associated organizations and publications including the
captioned organization.  Three of the associated organizations are
purported churces of scientology.  Also listed as associate groups are
the Hubbard Guidance Center, Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation,
Hubbard Research Foundation, and Hubbard Communications Office.

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