Bare-Faced Messiah, FBI Archives U.S. Acts to Stop Use of Cure-All Device

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

[newspaper article, paper identified only as The Evening Star, probably
January 1963]

U.S. Acts to Stop Use of Cure-All Device

By MIRIAM OTTENBERG
Star Staff Writer

The Goverment today moved against a world-wide cult, centered in
Washington, which uses a sort of lie detector device to cure the ills of
mankind.

The legal action, started by the Food and Drug Administration, was against
the Academy of Scientology, the Hubbard Guidance Center and the
Distribution Center, Inc. They are located in buildings in the 1800 block
of Nineteenth street and the 1900 block of S street N.W.

Misbranding Charged

District Court Judge William B. Jones signed an order directing the United
States Marshal to seize devices known as the "Hubbard Electrometer" or the
"Hubbard E Meter" and variously labeled "for use in scientology" or "for
use scientological processing."

The order also directed the marshals to seize copies of 21 different
pamphlets, leaflets, charts and  periodicals used to promote sales and
service of the "Hubbard Electrometer."

The Government charged that the device was misbranded in the eyes of the
law on the ground that the various pamphlets constitute the "labeling" of
instructions for use of the machine and fail to bear adequate directions
for its use for the intended purposes.

The court was told that the labeling "contains statements which represent,
suggest and imply that the article is adequate and effective for
diagnosis, prevention, treatment, detection and elimination of the causes
of all mental and nervous disorders and illnesses such as neurosis,
psychoses, schizophrenia and psychosomatic illnesses, which psychosomatic
ailments are represented to include most of the physical ailments of
mankind, such as arthritis, cancer, stomach ulcers and radiation burns
from atomic bombs, poliomyelitis, the common cold, etc., and that the
article is adequate and effective to improve the intelligence quotient and
to measure the basal metabolism, mental state and change of man."

Agent Poses as Student

These statements, the Government charged, are "false and misleading since
the article is not adequate and effective for the diagnosis, treatment,
prevention, detection and elimination of the causes of the

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diseases" nor to improve th[?] intelligence quotient.

The Government action followed a month-long investigation in which a Food
and Drug inspector posed as a student of the Academy of Scientology. FDA
reported that the buildings used by the organization are usually occupied
by 100 to 150 people, including scientology students, patients and
staff.

The patients, however, are not called patients but "pre-clears."  As one
of the seized publications explains:

"We have resolved healing.  Clearing, of course, resolves it and we can
clear."

Another publication says: "There is no known way to clear anyone without
using a meter....The Hubbard Electrometer is an electronic device for
measuring the mental state and change of state of homo sapiens."

The device was described by authorities as one-third of a lie detector.
It was described as a machine which passes a small electric current
through the body of the person from to the other and measures the changes
in the body's resistance to the flow of current.

"Sees All, Knows All"

The "clearing" process involves the practitioner - or auditor - asking
questions while the "pre-clear" or patient is on the machine.  As one of
the pamphlets advises: "The E-meter is never wrong.  It sees all; it
knows all.  It tells everything."

The question-asking process is known as a "security check."  Before
starting the eight pages of questions, the "auditor" tells the "pre-clear"
that "while we cannot guarantee you that matters revealed in this check
will be held forever secret, we can promise you faithfully that no part of
it nor any answers you make here will be given to the police or state."

The "pre-clear" is told that he or she can pass the test by agreeing to
take it, answering the questions truthfully and "by not being a member of
a subversive group seeking to injure scientology."

The questions run the whole gamut of crime.  The "pre-clear" is asked if
he has ever stolen anything, lived under an assumed name, sholifted,
forged, blackmailed or been blackmailed, cheated, smuggled, entered a
country illegally, been in prison, embezzled, told lies in court, peddled
dope, divulged Government secrets, murdered, kidnaped [sic], betrayed a
trust, plotted to destroy a member of his family.

Interspersed with the other questions are these: "Are my questions
embarrassing?" "Have you ever been a newspaper reporter?" "Have you ever
done anything the police may find out?" "Have you ever done anything your
mother would be ashamed to find out?"  "Have you ever had any unkind
thoughts about L. Ron Hubbard?"

Science Fiction Writer

Mr. Hubbard, whose biography is included in the material listed for
seizure, is a former science fiction writer.  He introduced "dianetics,
the modern science of mental health" in 1950 and moved on to "scientology"
and the electrometer two years later.  Subsequently, he established the
"Founding Church of Scientology," which also has its headquarters here.

His Hubbard Association of Scientologists International, according to the
literature, has offices in Washington, Los Angeles, London, Melbourne,
Australia; Auckland, New Zealand; Johannesburg, Union of South Africa;
Paris and Berlin.

In his biography, he reports that he attended George Washington
University, rose to command of a squadron in the Navy, had the adventures
reported in "Mister Roberts" and now disseminates the latest "technical
and training data he has developed in his research" through Hubbard
Communications Offices on all continents.

His publications describe the Hubbard Association of Scientologists
International as "the world's largest mental health organization" with "a
dozen practitioners for every one in other mental practices."

As one of his pamphlets claims, scientology is "sufficiently simple and
rapid that where it requires 12 years to train a psychiatrist, eight weeks
of heavy training can permit a person to achieve results."