Sarah Jane

You're encouraged to kind of fall into this obedience in the pre-clear in order to attain clear.

But although the book was heavily criticized by medical professionals when it was published, Dianetics turned out to be a major hit with the

general public new york times bestseller baby this is wild right huge i mean it's like and it's also interesting to look at that and i don't want to compare it to modern day threads we can see these self-help books that go off and then you can see like a lot of experts come out and go this is not backed in theory and you worry about yes this is an entirely other beast but there are threads we can draw to today with some self-help work and theories that are drawn out right it's

So over 150,000 copies were sold in the first year alone.

That number, it's now over 20 million.

Hubbard gained this massive following, what one book reviewer called a nationwide cult of incredible proportions.

And off the back of its success, 500 Dianetic groups were set up across the US to help connect pre-clears with auditors.

And then Hubbard establishes the Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation, which raises money for further research of which he was in, surprise, surprise, complete financial control.

He would frequently remove large sums of money without approval.

That also shocked me.

God, these quotes are like, this is probably the most heavily quoted big talk we've ever done.

But I think it's so important to kind of add to this because it proves just how overt people around him were about this as well.

So, you know, this is a power hungry man who has been given a major platform for the first time in his life.

But again, just as he hits his stride, he fails again.

It's two years after the first Dianetics book was published, Disaster One Strikes.

Hubbard was conducting a presentation on Dianetics and he was showcasing to the world the first ever woman who had become a clear.

He invited her on stage and told the audience that since she no longer held any engrams, she now had perfect recall.

And while she was looking away, he tested her memory by asking her the colour of the tie he was wearing on stage.

But she gets it wrong.

Which, it seems silly because, like, if you wanted this to work, like, it's kind of crazy to...