The Importance of Dianetics in Scientology

You may be a bit confused as to why the word "Dianetics" comes up so much when it's really Scientology. What's going on?

Dianetics was developed first. When Scientology was developed, L. Ron Hubbard considered it an improvement and a replacement of Dianetics. He said that Dianetics wasn't workable enough, wasn't fast enough and that Scientology was the answer. He even declared that the goal of Dianetics, the "Clear", was now attainable through Scientology.

And so, with the development of Scientology, Dianetics faded away.

Originally, Hubbard declared that Scientology was not a religion, but he soon learned of the value of calling it a religion. Being a religion was a way to avoid those pesky laws about "practicing medicine without a license", those annoying requirements about "truth in advertising", and other legal liabilities. Plus, there were nice tax benefits. So, he decided that he would cloak Scientology as a religion.

At first, most Scientologists thought it was pretty much a joke, but to pull off the religion gimmick, they had to take it seriously and make Scientology look more "religious", and they did -- as much as a business can.

But, despite the legal and tax benefits, the religious cloaking wasn't all to the good. As time went on, it became obvious that there were serious drawbacks to this religion gimmick. While it was working to shield Scientology from a lot of legal problems, the religion angle also closed many doors to aggressive business expansion.

Religion really isn't a good way to get the maximum number of paying public in the door. A lot of people are turned off by religious proselytizing.

Not only that, but most of the countries in the world are very strongly controlled or influenced by one or the other of the major religions. In some, any religious activity outside of the official religion is illegal.

What to do? A business wouldn't have any trouble at all expanding into these areas. What to do, what to do?

Sure, the Church of Scientology created all their little front groups: Narconon, Applied Scholastics, Criminon, A.B.L.E. and the rest, but those were pretty narrowly targeted to the type of person they could pull in. The church needed something that was "non-religious" and could be used to pull in a more general type of person.

And so Hubbard brought back Dianetics as a "non-religious, self-help" technology -- separate from the 'religion' of Scientology.

Of course that's a lie. It isn't separate. Dianetics is thoroughly and completely part of the Scientology belief system. You cannot do Scientology without doing Dianetics. And, of course, the intention with Dianetics is that people will automatically progress through the cheap Dianetics processes onto the more expensive Scientology services.

So, Dianetics was brought back from obscurity as the ultimate front-group for Scientology. That's why you don't see Scientology in the malls. That's why you don't see Scientology on the streets, at the "stress test" tables. You only see Dianetics. It's a trick.

And that's why you see "Dianetics Centers", as a business, in countries and cultures where the religion of Scientology would be unwelcome. But, even with that name it is and will always be Scientology.

In this way, the Church of Scientology attempts to have its cake and eat it too. It tries, with Dianetics, to get all the benefits of being a money-making non-religious business, while still, under the Scientology name, attempting to get all the benefits and protections of being a religion. It's the same organization, trying to play the game both ways.

But it's just another lie. It's just another trick. It's just another way to try to get around the "wog" (non-Scientology) laws and "wog" cultures, to expand their business and, they hope, take over the world.
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