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Church of Scientology said 'Menace to Mental Health'

Title: Church of Scientology said 'Menace to Mental Health'
Date: Tuesday, 12 August 1969
Publisher: Evening Independent (Florida)
Author: Walter C. Alvarez
Main source: news.google.com

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In that fine journal published by the American Medical Association, "Today's Health," for December, 1968, there is a splendid article by Ralph Lee Smith on Scientology, which he calls a "menace to mental health." "Couched in [pseudoscientific] terms and rites, this dangerous cult claims to help mentally or emotionally disturbed persons — for sizable fees. Scientology has grown into a very profitable worldwide enterprise . . . and a serious threat to health."

Anyone who wants to learn something about this cult to which perhaps he will contribute several thousand dollars, should read this line article by Ralph Smith. There he tells how Ron Hubbard, who is the inventor of Scientology, once invented Dianetics, a sort of psychology. Strangely, the book he wrote on it, suddenly became a best-seller. Hubbard apparently is a wizard on thinking up a complicated type of psychology with a lot of weird terms. As usual with these fads, some people are highly enthusiastic about it, while others are very angry because they got no help, and now feel that they were swindled. To show how well the thing pays off to Hubbard and his associates, a moderate course will cost perhaps a thousand dollars, and a three-weeks' course can cost $1250.

Smith tells of a wealthy man who spent $28,000 on the so-called "processing" that he went through. The people buy a little electronic gadget that is supposed to show them how they are coming along with their "processing." Desperate people, often with a poorly born nervous system or a mild psychosis which even able psychiatrists cannot cure, will often fall for some new cult. Some, if they have enough faith, can be helped by anything — even some sea water.