First International Congress of Dianeticists & Scientologists

I can break a really rough case in 20 or 25 hours at the outside—change it utterly—and I can change a chronic somatic in half an hour. I can make kids walk in a few minutes who were crippled. —L. Ron Hubbard

So wrote Ron from Seville, Spain, in the summer of 1953.

In the three whirlwind years since publication of Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, the technology had advanced to miracle level. Mr. Hubbard had solved the problem of human aberration and psychosomatic illness. More than that, he had demonstrated for the first time, with certainty, what Man had only speculated on and hoped for: the true nature of every individual as a spiritual being.

Having discovered and mapped out the full potentialities of a being at Operating Thetan in the Philadelphia Doctorate Course, Scientology 8-8008 and The Factors, Ron now faced the task of making those potentials a reality. Auditing techniques had to be codified, books had to be written and materials to train auditors required assembly. Thus Ron set to work, in Europe, preparing the needed curriculums and texts.

Upon his return to America in late September, nearly 400 delegates gathered in Philadelphia for the First International Congress of Dianeticists & Scientologists. Throughout five days of lectures, seminars and meetings, they received not only an overview of research from the earliest days, but the growth of Dianetics and Scientology in society:

“The true achievement is in its application and its use as a tool by which the culture of Man can be improved from the mere barbarism which he now enjoys, where he can be lifted from a level of war and famine and pestilence, of crooked courts, of predatory governments, sanctimonious religions and raw barbarianism under a hundred thousand guises.”

Nevertheless, as Ron continued:

“Here on Earth there is an opportunity to construct a civilization such as Earth has not before enjoyed. A tool has been provided by which this can be done. The application of this tool, not its invention, is the goal. That the forging of the tool has come to a successful conclusion does not mean that the job is concluded.”

To bring that goal to fruition, Ron emphasized the need for smooth organizational action and cooperation. He enumerated the functions any Scientologist ought to carry forward in society, functions which, through action, answer the question, “What is a Scientologist?”

This Congress, then, spans the breadth of Ron’s research from techniques that exteriorize a being as given in Standard Operating Procedure 8 (SOP 8), to the means by which a Scientologist can instill into society the finer qualities of cooperation, love, goodness, mercy and justice.