Re: Harlan Ellison on $cientology

In article <3sfb74$43@panix.com>, Charles Platt <cp@panix.com> wrote:

>According to various books on this subject, which I believe are better
>researched than your post, Scientology was started as a religion in order
>to attain tax-exempt status; and again, according to the sources that I
>have read, Hubbard once said that this had been his greatest mistake,
>since it led to endless trouble with the IRS. Your suggestion that
>Dianetics "was completely washed up" needs to be substantiated; I doubt
>it is entirely true. Also, as I recall, the E-meter preceded Scientology,
>though I may be wrong about that.
Dianetics was in a pretty sad state by 1952, with creditors hounding the Dianetics Foundations. The best source of information on early Dianetics and its evolution into Scientology is Roy Wallis's book "The Road to Total Freedom", Columbia University Press, 1977.

>The Ellison statement, quoted here, clearly refers to a time before
>Hubbard established Dianetics. Therefore it can have nothing to do with
>Scientology, which came many years later.
Scientology came only two years after Dianetics. See both Wallis's book and Time magazine, December 22, 1952, page 34. -- Ron Newman Email: <rnewman@mit.edu> Web: <a href="http://www.mit.edu:8001/people/rnewman/home.html">http://www.mit.edu:8001/people/rnewman/home.html</a>(I speak only for myself, not for any part of MIT.)