Bare-Faced Messiah (PDF) - Apologetics Index

Winter still felt the subject was worth pursuing and made arrangements to visit Bay Head to
observe Dianetics 'in action'. Ron, who was acutely aware of the potential value of recruiting a
doctor to the Dianetic cause, invited Winter to stay with him and Sara at the cottage on the beach.
He arrived in Bay Head on 1 October 1949, and Sara, now several months into her pregnancy, did
her best to make the young doctor welcome, despite somewhat cramped conditions. Winter
discovered that Hubbard was spending much of his time testing his theories by 'running' sciencefiction
fans brought in by Campbell. The purpose of 'running' a patient, Hubbard explained, was to
send them 'down the time-track' to uncover their 'impediments'.
Winter sat in on several sessions, then agreed to Ron's suggestion that he should be 'run' himself.
'The experience was intriguing,' he said. 'I felt, in general, that I was obtaining some benefits from
Hubbard's methods of therapy. I was also aware of the possible inaccuracies of a subjective
evaluation of my own progress: I therefore endeavoured to make up for this by observing the other
patients closely. It was possible during this short period of observation to note only the differences
in their behaviour before and after each therapy session. The changes were obvious: before a
session I would see agitation, depression and irritability; after a session the patient would be
cheerful and relaxed.'[3]
Although he had some reservations, particularly about Hubbard's absolutism and inclination to
make sweeping generalizations, he was unquestionably impressed. He noted the emotional
discharge that resulted when patients recalled painful experiences; he himself re-lived the terror he
had felt as a child on learning of his grandmother's death and found it dissolving in a fit of sobbing
and weeping, after which he felt a great sense of relief.
Winter did not return to Michigan until Thanksgiving, when an incident occurred which finally
convinced him of the validity of Dianetics. He arrived home to discover that his six-year-old son was
having problems: the boy had developed a paralyzing fear of the dark and of ghosts, which he
believed were waiting upstairs to strangle him. Winter recalled that his wife had experienced
considerable difficulties during the boy's birth and decided to apply Dianetic techniques to see if
there was any connection. He was flabbergasted by the result.
The doctor persuaded his son to lie down, close his eyes and try to recall the first time he had ever
seen a ghost. To Winter's amazement the boy described in detail the white apron, cap and mask of
the obstetrician who had delivered him and how he felt he was being strangled. Winter and his wife
discussed what had happened and concluded with certainty that the only time their son had seen
that doctor in his surgical gown was at the moment of his birth. It was evident to them that the boy's
fear was connected with his struggle to be born and his phobia soon disappeared.
Believing himself to be at the possible dawn of a 'Golden Age of greater sanity', Winter returned to
Bay Head after the holiday enormously optimistic about the prospects for Dianetics. 'I immediately
became immersed in a life of Dianetics and very little else,' he recorded. Hubbard and Campbell
were deeply involved in the projected article for Astounding and Winter began work on the
preparation of a paper explaining the principles and methodology of Dianetic therapy, intended for
presentation to the medical profession. Ron, who made no secret of his contempt for the medical
establishment (often to the considerable embarrassment of Dr Winter), was not in the least
surprised by the reception it received: the Journal of the American Medical Association and the
American Journal of Psychiatry both rejected the paper for publication on the grounds of insufficient
clinical evidence of the technique's effectiveness.
Undeterred, the three men continued developing and refining Dianetic theory, slowly bringing into