Bare-Faced Messiah (PDF) - Apologetics Index

Throughout the early summer months of 1952, Hubbard promulgated the theory of Scientology at a
series of lectures delivered at the Hubbard Association of Scientologists in Phoenix. He was
addressing, for the most part, committed Dianeticists, people who truly believed him to be a
genius, and so the audiences tended to be somewhat uncritical. But if validation of the cosmology
was needed, it was constantly provided by the 'past lives' which were by now a prominent and
fascinating feature of auditing.
Thetans were obviously not restricted to this universe and auditing sessions revealed innumerable
accounts of space travel and adventures on other planets very similar to those found in the pages
of Astounding Science Fiction, to which the founder of Scientology had so recently been
contributing. One report described how a pre-clear had arrived on a planet 74,000 years ago and
battled 'black magic operators' who were using electronics for evil purposes. 'He now goes to
another planet by spaceship. A deception is accomplished by hypnosis and pleasure implants
(rather like opium in their effects) whereby he is deceived into a love affair with a robot decked out
as a beautiful red-haired girl . . .'[3]
'Past lives' were further confirmed by the flickering needle of the E-meter, which was
enthusiastically adopted as propitious technological support. Invented by a Dianeticist called
Volney Mathison, the E-meter was basically a device which measured galvanic skin response - the
changes in electrical conductivity of the skin that occur at moments of even quite slight excitement
or emotional stress. It proved to be such a useful auditing tool that it would eventually become
invested with an almost mystical power to reveal an individual's innermost thoughts. It also
provided a useful source of income, for every self-respecting Scientologist wanted to have his own
E-meter and the only place to buy them was from the Hubbard Association of Scientologists.
In July, the Scientific Press of Phoenix (another Hubbard enterprise) published a book originally
titled What To Audit and later re-named The History of Man. Introduced as a 'cold-blooded and
factual account of your last sixty trillion years', Hubbard intended the book to establish the
foundations of Scientology and he had no desire to be unduly modest about its potential. With the
knowledge gained by Scientology, he wrote in the third paragraph, 'the blind again see, the lame
walk, the ill recover, the insane become sane and the sane become saner.'