Dianetics was originally a fairly limited therapeutic method developed by Hubbard. It became widely known in 1950 when Hubbard’s bestseller Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health was published. The purpose of Dianetics was to free man from his traumatic experiences and the memory pictures or engrams of these, so that he can achieve a state which Hubbard calls “Clear”.
Almost immediately, Dianetics started to expand into Scientology, where metaphysics and spirituality are accentuated. It is based on the idea that man is basically a spiritual being, or thetan. The task of Scientology is to return the thetan, who has fallen into the subjugation of ignorance and matter, once again to awareness of his actual spiritual nature.
No religion has come into existence complete. Only after decades or even centuries has one developed into a religion aware of itself. For instance the theological understanding and denominational organization of Christianity took several decades to take form. It would be unfair to assume that Scientology would immediately have been born into its final form.
