"Dianetics to Get Test in Court" Detroit News, April 10, 1953

The so-called "science" of dianetics will be explored in Recorder's Court April 21.

That is the date set by Judge George Murphy for examination of charges against Earl Cunard and Mrs. Refa Postel, whose Detroit Dianetics and Scientology School, 8901 Dailey court, was closed by a police raid last March 25.

Cunard and Mrs. Postel are accused of conspiracy, practicing medicine without a license and operating a vocational guidance school without a license.

They pleaded innocent when arraigned Thursday before Judge Murphy and are free on $1,000 bonds.

EXPLAINS THEORY

Meanwhile, one of the detectives who enrolled as a "student" and later took part in the raid, Sergt. Josef Van Wie of the Special Investigation Bureau, explained some aspects of dianetics he expects to be brought out in the court hearing.

All humans not devotees of dianetics, he said, are called "pre-clears." After a beginner's course, they are called "clears."

After becoming expert, and able to understand "theta waves," combining time and thought, they are called "theta clears."

ABLE TO "LEAVE BODY"

"A THETA CLEAR is the ultimate," he said, "and theoretically able to leave his body at will and go backward in time and space. One tenet is that the human body is merely a temporal case or abode for the human spirit.

"Some dianetics addicts believe that flying saucers are manned by theta clears from other planets."

Van Wie emphasized that scientific status of dianetics itself is not at issue in the case.

"Apparently," he conceded, "It does a lot of good for some people. It is not for me to compare it with the sciences of psychology and psychiatry."

USE PSYCHOANALYSIS

Part of dianetics teaching, he said, involves a sort of applied psychoanalysis, administered to each other by students holding hands.

Once a pupil becomes a "clear," he said, he is supposed to be forever free of mental or physical ailments.

A former police officer, Ernest D. Wirick, 15653 Fairmount, a dianetics pupil, who resigned from the force three days before the police investigation began, will not be called in the case, Van Wie said.

Cunard, 25, who lives at the Dailey court address, gave his occupation as "unlicensed doctor" when arrested. Mrs. Postel, 45, of 16345 Oakfield, said she was a "scientologist."

She also protested that police and employees at the Wayne County Building, where she registered the school, both told her "we did not need any licenses."

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