hen discussing the phenomena of death, one is probably touching upon the single most universally pondered philosophic question. Moreover, and particularly what with a doubling of an American population beyond the age of sixty-five, one is discussing a matter of truly grave concern. In reply to all that death represents as the grand promise of a hereafter (or what with the advent of the scientific age, the grand extinction), stands L. Ron Hubbard’s “The Phenomena of Death.”
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By way of introduction, let us briefly return to late 1951, when on the heels of Dianetics, Ron declared: “The further one investigated, the more one came to understand that here, in this creature Homo sapiens, were entirely too many unknowns.” In particular, he cited “strange yearnings” for faraway lands, curious memories of distant times, and those with no observable training, suddenly, and quite inexplicably, speaking foreign tongues. Then, too, and herein lay the crux, there were cases soon on record, dozens actually, wherein those receiving Dianetics had not shown expected improvement until traumatic experience from what appeared to have been several lifetimes had been alleviated.
To appreciate what was unfolding, let us understand that if Dianetics involves “the tracing of experience” to discharge buried trauma, then it was found to be incumbent upon the Dianetics auditor to address the whole of that experience—even including, as Ron explained, “phenomena for which we have no adequate explanation.” His first recorded statement on the matter was equally indeterminate. In reference to a case wherein remarkably convincing details of an apparently former death were offered, he very simply remarked, “We have to keep an open mind about these things,” and would not further commit himself. Privately, however, he seems to have remained unconvinced, and reasonably suggested the so-called former life sequence to be imaginative, perhaps representing a means of “taking refuge in a fictitious past.” But in either case, and to this he held firm, the matter clearly warranted further investigation.
To grasp what next ensued requires a short explanation of circumstances. Not long after the publication of Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, and in the wake of unprecedented popularity (the book soon topped best-seller lists, generated banner headlines and finally inspired nothing short of a national movement) the first Dianetics Research Foundation had formed in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Although nominally listed among the directors, Ron confined himself to further research, lectures and the training of students. The actual administration of Foundation affairs fell to others, and within that arrangement, he found himself facing a board resolution to prohibit any and all further discussion of past lives.
If one is to be entirely fair, those behind that now infamous New Jersey board resolution must not be accused of an arbitrary prejudice. After all, and particularly within mid-twentieth-century Western society, the notion of a former existence was nothing if not foreign. Moreover, when speaking of those from the New Jersey board, including the aforementioned Michigan physician Dr. Joseph Winter, former Western Electric engineer Donald Rogers and Astounding Science Fiction editor, John W. Campbell, Jr., one is speaking of quite a materially minded crew. Campbell, for example, had previously struggled with several elaborate theories to explain human thought in purely cellular terms, and was otherwise much concerned that Dianetics remain on an acceptably scientific, i.e., material footing. Meanwhile, the just as politically concerned Winter, in his capacity as Foundation medical director, continued to argue that Dianetics would never gain true acceptance (and all-important federal funding) unless amalgamated into the American psychological and psychiatric establishment... Which, in turn, demanded nothing shake a psychological/psychiatric creed that defined our lives as a purely biochemical process beginning with our birth and ending with our death.
