Hannah Ferguson

Stronger.

No, yeah.

So you're obviously tense and that's why my arm didn't go down.

I was like, oh my God, Dad, I need a power band.

My whole family wore a power band for like a year anyway.

Anyway, whilst Hubbard was claiming this invention as his own, the reality is much simpler.

The gadget he had invented was called a skin galvanometer, a device which measured electrical currents in the skin.

It was sort of like a primitive lie detector, so it was able to detect how electrical currents in the skin moved when the mind was experiencing stress.

So at this conference, with an e-meter in his hand, Hubbard announced his new study of Scientology.

So where Dianetics was a study of the body, Scientology was a study of the soul.

And to underpin his new science, Hubbard created a broad mythology.

Now...

Heads up, we're going to get into some pretty wacky territory.

We weren't there already.

We weren't there.

Don't worry.

And you should know in advance that all of the following Hubbard claimed had been scientifically proven through his studies of Dianetics.

So Hubbard explained that within each person was an immortal entity known as a thetan.

It's really fascinating because I remember in Beyond Belief, they were talking about, and it's very much written to start from her sort of childlike memories of this and how for as long as she could remember, people would talk about their past lives and took like a lot of pride and joy in that.

in explaining their past lives.