The cult of dianetics, which was going strong a year ago (TIME, July 24, 1950), has some of the features of a new religion. Its founder, 'Science-Fictioneer L. Ron Hubbard, claimed that his "science of the mind" could cure all mental and most bodily ills, make supermen of truly devoted converts. Today, dianetics is suffering the standard fate of the cult: one of its earliest adherents has broken away and is accusing Hubbard of having strayed from the true faith. ...

In May of last year, from the modest little town of Elizabeth, New Jersey, came a voice that promised complete salvation for mankind on this earth. That in itself is nothing new, but this particular voice was a powerful roar, worth at least a footnote in any account of our troubled age. It was the voice of a man by the name of L. Ron Hubbard. Until this moment, Hubbard had been known as a writer of science fiction fantasies. But ...

Dianetics is the title of a book (and a "science") which, for many months, held its place as a best seller in the non-fiction field. According to its originator and to thousands of dianetics adherents, it is "the new Modern Science of Mental Health." Dianetic research institutes have been founded in many cities, with the dual purpose of studying mental and psychosomatic ills in the light of dianetic theories, and of training potential practitioners or "auditors" to treat sick people by ...

ELIZABETH — Barton Press, Inc., of Newark held a new writ of attachment today against the Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation after being edged out recently by other legal claims on the foundation's property. Matthew Grayson, attorney here for the Newark firm, said the new writ was against $5,000 cash security left by the foundation for lease of several offices here when it moved to Wichita, Kan., in May. The newly discovered funds, Grayson said, are being held by the Caldwell Place ...

WICHITA, Kan., June 12 (AP) — L. Ron Hubbard, founder of dianetics, was awarded an emergency divorce from his wife, Sara Northrup Hubbard, today. The divorce was without alimony but provided that Mrs. Hubbard is to have custody of their 14-month old child Alexis and $200 a month to support Alexis.

Indications that Dianetics founder L. Ron Hubbard, 40, has fled to Cuba with the baby daughter he is accused of kidnapping were contained today in a letter submitted to the court by Mrs. Sara Northrup Hubbard, 25. Mrs. Hubbard, who is suing for divorce on the grounds her husband is insane and who accused him of having kidnapped their daughter, Alexis, 13 months, last February 24th, presented to Superior Judge W. Turney Fox a letter written by Hubbard to her last ...

LOS ANGELES, April 23 —Dianetics Founder L. Ron Hubbard's wife charged today in a divorce suit that he subjected her to "scientific torture experiments" and is suffering from a mental ailment. Mrs. Sara Northrup Hubbard, 25, charged in her divorce suit that Hubbard subjected her to "systematic torture" through denial of sleep, beatings, strangulations, and suggestions that she kill herself "as a divorce would hurt his reputation." As a consequence, she and her medical advisers concluded Hubbard, 40, was ...

L. Ron Hubbard, 40, founder of dianetics, yesterday was said to have his small daughter, Alexis Valorie, 13 months, with him in New Jersey, while his estranged wife Sara searched for the child here. In court of Superior Judge Mildred Lillie, testimony of Vincent J. McGonigle, operator of a West Los Angeles nurses' agency, was that he had taken the infant to the father in the East, March 5. Mrs. Hubbard, 25, had said the child was secreted with McGonigle under ...

Mrs. Sara N. Hubbard, 26, suing L. Ron Hubbard, 40, inventor of dianetics, for divorce or annulment, disclosed yesterday that she has received a letter from him mailed in Cuba which assures her that her 13-month-old daughter Alexis Valorie, "is getting excellent care." The letter was filed in Superior Court with a request for permission to serve Hubbard by publication and by registered mail in the proceeding wherein Mrs. Hubbard charges that he kidnaped their child. In Cuban Hospital Hubbard, whose ...

Mrs. Sara Northrup Hubbard, 25, yesterday charged that her husband, L. Ron Hubbard, 40, inventor of "dianetics," a new brand of psychology, had conspired to hide her baby from her. In a nine-page petition for a writ of habeas corpus she stated she had not seen the child Alexis Valorie, 13 months old, since Feb. 23 when the child was taken from her nursery and she herself was "kidnaped" and taken to Yuma, Ariz. The document was set for hearing next ...

L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the dianetics movement, was accused today in a court action of kidnaping his young wife by force and "imprisoning" their 13-month-old daughter. The charge was made in a petition for a writ of habeas corpus filed by Hubbard's wife, Mrs. Sara Northrup Hubbard, 25, to regain possession of the child, Alexis Valorie. Superior Jude Mildred L. Lillie issued the writ. Sheriff's deputies were directed to serve it on Frank Dessler, identified as one of Hubbard s ...

The Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation, 275 Morris Avenue, target of a suit accusing it of operating a medical school without a license, is moving its national headquarters out of Elizabeth because it has no desire to remain where it is not wanted. Transfer of the national headquarters to Wichita, Kan., effective April 15 was announced yesterday by the foundation. A spokesman indicated the principal reason is the pending District Court suit. Charles Leonard, in charge of press relations for the foundation, ...

DIANETICS. L. Ron Hubbard, 452 pages. Hermitage House, New York, 1950, $4.-00. Because a considerable mass of non-medical people have been puzzled by this book, and some of them seek the opinion of physicians with respect to its value, it might be an advantage if the physician could have it appraised without being forced to read it. This review, made for that purpose, takes the attitude that Hubbard has not produced any scientific proof to support his theories, and consequently "dianetics ...

I first read with skepticism and the reread with growing interest: Dianetics, The Modern Science of Mental Health, Hermitage House, New York. Let it be clearly understood that Hubbard's neat and exciting theory is not proved, in any genuinely scientific sense, by any documented evidence in the book or anywhere else to date. None of the 275 cases on which Hubbard based his work has been written up in scholarly form. No one has ever "seen" an engram or observed any ...

The practice of "dianetics," a theory for the treatment of psychosomatic and other ills, was attacked as "dangerous" last night by Dr. Gregory Zilboorg, psychiatrist, at a meeting held under the auspices of the Physicians' Forum at the New York Academy of Medicine, 2 East 103d Street. The attack on "dianetics," the theories of which are expounded in a best-selling book of that name by L. Ron Hubbard, was said by a spokesman for the Physicians' Forum to have been the ...

The State Board of Medical Examiners, which has filed a District Court suit against the Hubbard Dianetics Research Foundation, 275 Morris Avenue, yesterday promised to give the foundation more specific details in its charge that the Elizabeth organization is conducting a medical school contrary to the law. The trial date is set for May 15. The case came before District Court Judge Milton A. Feller on a motion by George Meier, of Bloomfield, attorney for the Hubbard Foundation. Under court rules, ...

ELIZABETH — The Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation, Inc., will go on trial in part one of Union County District Court February 19 to answer charges by the State Board of Medical Examiners that it operated a medical school without a license. L. Ron Hubbard, author of "Dianetics," a book that explains his "new science of the mind," set up headquarters of the foundation at 275 Morris avenue last July. At that time, Hubbard announced his organization would train "auditors" to administer ...

L. Ron Hubbard, of Elizabeth, founder of the controversial new mental health science of dianetics, today hurled a challenge at the psychiatric profession, many members of which have sharply criticized his theories. Mr. Hubbard, organizer of the Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation at 275 Morris avenue, suggested that two impartial judges select two neurotic individuals, without previous advice from either psychiatrists or dianeticists. The psychiatrists would treat the patients for a week, under his proposal, with psychometries — tests, to the laymen ...

BERKELEY, Feb. 10 (U.P.)—A "dianetics instructor" and his "artist's model" wife were found shot to death in their apartment last night, apparently a murder and suicide, according to police. The bodies of David E. Cary, 29, and his wife Helen, 27, were found after neighbors complained the apartment radio had been blaring without stop for "at least a week." Police said the couple had been dead for about 10 days. Police Investigator J. L. Houston said Mrs. Cary apparently shot her ...

C. Parker Morgan, of 36 Monmouth Road, Secretary and General Counsel of the Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation, 275 Morris Avenue, today announced his resignation from the organization. He will resume law practice with his father, former Judge Charles L. Morgan. Mr. Morgan said the decision was a difficult one, because he is a founder member of the federation for life and one of only four persons holding the "Fellow of Dianetics" degree. But he said that in line with the foundation's ...

The Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation, Inc., was accused of operating a school for treatment of disease without a license in a complaint by the State Board of Medical Examiners docketed today in Part I of District Court. The complaint was served on C. Parker Morgan, 275 Morris avenue, registered agent. The board, acting through attorney general Theodore D. Parsons, specifically charged that the foundation violated R.S. 18:20-18. The foundation is required to file an answer by Thursday. Otherwise the state may ...