Talk:History of Dianetics

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[edit] What belongs here versus on the book's page

I think some things -- especially details on bestseller status and editions -- need to move to the D:MSMH page. Thanks. --Davidstrauss 03:47, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] First sentence

"The ideas of Dianetics originated in unpublished research L. Ron Hubbard supposedly performed in the 1920s and 1930s." <-- What sort of "unpublished research" would have been "performed" by Hubbard in the 1920s? This would make sense if it said 1930s and 1940s. --JWSchmidt 06:50, 31 July 2006 (UTC)

Well, it may seem a very far-fetched claim that Hubbard was doing much in the way of serious "research" in the 1920s, when he would have been between 9 and 19 -- however, the Church of Scientology makes the claim which is even more far-fetched that LRH was "able to rope and break broncos with the best of them" soon after the age of three and a half[1], so the fact that the claim is far-fetched doesn't mean it isn't being made. And it's hardly difficult to verify that the Church claims the groundwork for Hubbard's later "discoveries" to have been laid during his (much-exaggerated) travels in Asia in his teenage years ([2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7]). -- Antaeus Feldspar 14:58, 31 July 2006 (UTC)

The term "research" would more reasonably be applied to the "experiments" that are claimed to have taken place in the 30s[8][9][10] and 40s[11]. Maybe the first sentence could say something like, "Attempts have been made to trace the ideas of Dianetics to the travel-related experiences of L. Ron Hubbard in the 1920s and unpublished research supposedly performed in the 1930s and 1940s," with appropriate citations. --JWSchmidt 16:34, 31 July 2006 (UTC)