History of Dianetics - From Dianetics To Scientology

From Dianetics To Scientology

Dianetics provided the seed from which the philosophical framework of Scientology grew. Scientologists refer to the book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health as "Book One". Hubbard created his own calendar based on the publication date of Dianetics; a date of "A.D. 13" signifies "Year 13 After Dianetics", or 1963.

In 1952, Hubbard published a new set of teachings as "Scientology, a religious philosophy". Scientology did not replace Dianetics but extended it to cover new areas, augmenting the Dianetic axioms with new, additional, Scientology axioms. Where the goal of Dianetics is to rid the individual of his reactive mind engrams, the stated goal of Scientology is to rehabilitate the individual's spiritual nature so that he may reach his full potential.

In 1975, "Dianetics Today" was published, an all-inclusive volume of over 1000 pages. The book introduced the use of the E-Meter, the Original Assessment or standardized interview and a rote routine (Referred to as "R3R") for the application of Dianetics. This was known as Standard Dianetics.

In 1978, Hubbard released "New Era Dianetics", a revised version supposed to produce better results in a shorter period of time; "Preclears who might have needed over 2,000 hours of auditing to achieve the highest results obtainable from 1950 technology might now achieve comparable gains in a tenth of that time with modern Dianetics and Scientology auditing." The Church of Scientology practices and disseminates both the original Dianetics and New Era Dianetics, and views Dianetics as an introduction to Scientology. As of 2001, the Church of Scientology continued to run television advertisements promoting Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health. In spite of this, an analysis of the approximate annual sales of Dianetics that was based on the Church's published data indicated that 2002 sales of Dianetics were similar to sales levels of the book in the early 1970s, and sales of the book reached its peak in the late 1980s. Perhaps indicative of the reason for that peak, Time Magazine, in 1991, alleged that the Church asked its members to purchase large quantities of the book with their own money, or with money supplied by the Church, for the sole purpose of keeping the book on the New York Times Best Seller list.