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personal and public ruin, having squandered his fortune from the early
success of Dianetics and having no other prospects in sight. Salvation
came in the form of a knight in shining armor from Wichita, Kansas. A
self-made millionaire named Don Purcell, who was an early convert to
Dianetics, invited Hubbard to Wichita with the promise of salvaging the
beleaguered Dianetic empire.
And so, the Hubbard Dianetics Research Foundation was reborn in
Wichita. Success remained elusive, however, as only a trickle of
students made their way to Wichita to sign up for Dianetics training and
Hubbard's lectures.
The honeymoon between Hubbard and Purcell proved to be short-lived.
Hubbard was spending money faster than Purcell could provide it. Purcell
had not anticipated the hundreds of thousands of dollars in debts which
he had legally acquired from the now defunct earlier foundations. And
the conservative Purcell was also disturbed by Hubbard's blossoming
interest in past lives.
In February of 1952, the Wichita Foundation was forced to file for
bankruptcy. A nasty battle ensued between Hubbard and Purcell. Hubbard
sued Purcell for reneging on his contract to assume the debts of the
earlier foundations. Then Purcell, realizing that Hubbard had made off
with the mailing lists and other property of the Wichita Foundation,
obtained a restraining order requiring Hubbard to return the foundation
property. The feud between the two men continued for many months.
Hubbard opened the Hubbard College on the other side of Wichita. It
remained open for only six weeks, but long enough for Hubbard to
organize a convention which, although scantly attended, provided Hubbard
with a forum from which to announce a completely new development.
This new development was called "Scientology," from the Latin word
"scio" (knowing) and the Greek word "logos" (to study). Scientology, the
study of knowledge, would now replace the study and practice of
Dianetics -- since Don Purcell now owned all the Dianetics copyrights.
As Dianetics concerned the body, Hubbard explained, Scientology
addressed the soul, renamed the "thetan" in Scientology. Through
Scientology, he claimed, a person could attain previously unattainable
levels of spiritual awareness.
Shortly after making this announcement to a small group of devotees
in Wichita, Hubbard, having secured divorces from his previous two
wives, married for the third and final time to Mary Sue Whipp, a young
student who had
come from Texas to study at the Wichita Foundation.
Hubbard and Mary Sue packed their bags and headed to Phoenix. There,
like the namesake symbol of the city, the fledgling science of
Scientology would arise from the ashes of Dianetics and soar to success.
The Hubbard Association of Scientology in Phoenix became the new
world headquarters for Hubbard and for Scientology. In his lectures and
his writing, Hubbard began to expound the principles of this new
"science." He introduced a new cosmology and a new direction for
auditing.
The thetan, according to Hubbard, has been around for a long time.
In the beginning, thetans together created this universe. However, over
the eons, they devolved into a degraded state, becoming the effect of
the very universe which they created. In his current debilitated state
as a thetan, man is unaware of his actual identity as an immortal
thetan.
This process of deterioration has also been expedited by a process
called "implanting" in which thetans are subjected to high voltage laser
beams used to program them for various purposes. These implants are
carried out in various locations in the universe and within our own
solar system. According to Hubbard, each of us, when we die, is
subconsciously programmed to return to the nearest implant station in
space where our memories of the life we just lived are electronically
zapped away, and where we will be programmed for our next life. Then we
are sent back to earth to "pick up a new body" in an endless cycle of
rebirth that has been going on for trillions of years.
Through Scientology auditing, the electronic "charge" resulting from
the implants can be removed, supposedly restoring the person to levels
of ability not achieved "in this sector of the universe" for millions of
years. As the electronic charge is removed, the restored thetan, called
an "operating thetan" or "OT" in Scientology, will theoretically regain
many lost abilities that he had in his "native state," such as
extrasensory perception, telepathy, telekinesis, as well as full control
of his present body.
As an "OT," a person through Scientology auditing should regain the
ability to "exteriorize" at will from his body, becoming able to travel
to any location in the universe and to control the body from a distance.
Hubbard also introduced at the same time a curious gadget which he
called the "E-meter," short for electropsychometer. This small boxlike
instrument is actually a galvanic skin response monitor which registers
changes in skin conductivity caused, according to Scientology, by