Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995), Tuesday 2 June 1964, page 27


MELBOURNE, Monday - The world director of Scientology, Mr. L. Ron Hubbard, showed paranoid delusions in his claim to have visited Venus and been in the Van Allen radiation belt around the earth, Dr. Ian Holland Martin said today.

In evidence before the inquiry into Scientology, Dr. Martin, a leading Melbourne psychiatrist and honorary Federal secretary of the Australian and New Zealand

College of Psychiatrists, said the "E meter" was dangerous in unqualified hands.

He said the "E meter" used for Scientology tests on students was a psycho-galvanometer and registered changes in the induction of electricity between two electrodes.

It had been thoroughly discredited as a lie detector, but if it was suggested to possess mysterious powers to a person who did not understand, that person would be suggestible to ideas foisted on him by the operator, Dr. Martin said.

This kind of Influence would heighten latent paranoic trends in persons who showed showed no significant emotional disturbance.

The hearing will continue

tomorrow.