Bare-Faced Messiah (PDF) - Apologetics Index

their orbit other converts, notably a young electrical engineer by the name of Don Rogers and Art
Ceppos, head of Hermitage House, a small medical and psychiatric textbook publisher who had
contracted, at Campbell's instigation, to publish a book about Dianetics. The 'Bay Head Circle', as it
came to be known, devoted many hours to discussion of terminology. Ron was still using the word
'impediment' to describe painful past experiences, although they all agreed that a new word was
needed to avoid confusion. For a while, impediment was replaced by 'norn', the name of the Norse
goddesses said to control Man's destiny, but in the end they plumped for 'engram', which was
defined in Dorland's Medical Dictionary, as a 'lasting mark or trace'.
Meanwhile, Ron found time to dash off a feature about Dianetics for the Explorers Club journal, in
which he explained that he had developed the therapy as a tool for expedition commanders to
maintain the health and morale of their men. 'That it apparently conquers and cures all
psychosomatic ills', he added with barely feigned modesty, 'and is of interest to institutions where it
has a salutary effect upon the insane, is beyond the province of its original intention.' Untroubled,
as always, by facts, Ron nonchalantly informed his fellow members that details of the science
could be found, 'where it belonged', in textbooks and professional publications on the mind and
body.[4]
[Credit for the inspiration for Dianetics would be variously and fancifully attributed over the years; at
one point Hubbard claimed his interest in the mind had been stimulated while at university by
comparing the rhythmic vibrations of poetry in English and Japanese, in which language he was, of
course, fluent[5].]
Shortly before Christmas 1949, Hubbard finished the article for Astounding, but Campbell agreed
to delay publication so that it would come out shortly before the book was available and help
promote sales. Despite his lingering misgivings about the extravagance of Ron's claims, Winter
agreed to write a foreword to the article, an endorsement which would greatly add to the credibility
of Dianetics. 'I sincerely feel', he wrote, 'that Ron Hubbard has discovered the key which for the first