View source for All About Radiation

{{Short description|1957 book by L. Ron Hubbard}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2024}}

{{Infobox book
| name         = All About Radiation
| image        = AllAboutRadiation.jpg
| caption      = Cover of first edition
| author       = [[L. Ron Hubbard]]
| country      = United States
| language     = English
| subject      = [[Purification Rundown]]
| publisher    = [[Hubbard Association of Scientologists International]]
| release_date = 1957
| media_type   = Print
| pages        = 110
| isbn         = 9780884044468
| dewey        = 
| congress     = 
| oclc         = 1082936769
| website      = 
}}

'''''All About Radiation''''' is a [[pseudoscience|pseudoscientific]] book by [[L. Ron Hubbard]] on the subject of radiation and atomic bombs, and the effects on the human body, including techniques for reducing or eradicating those effects. It was first published in 1957 by the [[Hubbard Association of Scientologists International]] (HASI) and printed by Speedwell Printing Company, [[Kent, England]]. Later editions were published by the [[Church of Scientology]]'s [[Church of Scientology#Pubs org|in-house publishing companies]]. The book is considered part of Scientology's [[Canon (basic principle)|canon]],{{r|rothstein|page=21}} however is no longer in print or being sold by the [[Church of Scientology]].

The book is controversial for its claims, amongst other things, that [[radiation poisoning]], and even cancer, can be cured by courses of vitamins. There is no known cure for radiation poisoning, and current medical practice is to provide [[palliative care]] until the symptoms subside or the patient dies.<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors =Berger ME, Christensen DM, Lowry PC, Jones OW, Wiley AL |title=Medical management of radiation injuries: current approaches |journal=Occup Med (Lond) |volume=56 |issue=3 |pages=162–72 |date=May 2006 |pmid=16641501 |doi=10.1093/occmed/kql011|doi-access=free }}</ref>

== Authorship and editions ==

Early printings of the book were credited on the cover as simply "By a nuclear physicist and a medical doctor", while subsequent ones credited [[L. Ron Hubbard]] as being the nuclear physicist and "Medicus" as being the doctor.

The 1979 edition credited the "medical doctor" as Richard Farley, and copyright by L. Ron Hubbard. The 1989 edition was  copyrighted [[L. Ron Hubbard Library]] with introductions written by Gene Denk and Farley R. Spink.

Editions were issued in 1957, 1967, 1979 and 1989. As of 2024, the book has been out of print and no longer being sold by the Church of Scientology.

==Variant text==
The book has gone through a number of printings since its initial run, with some modifications over the years, mostly to remove controversial assertions made in the original lectures. As it is a fundamental Scientology tenet that Hubbard's works are considered immutable [[Standard tech (Scientology)|standard tech]], not to be altered in any way, except by Hubbard himself, these changes are considered evidence to [[Free Zone (Scientology)|Freezone]] practitioners that the current Church alters the text. It is to be noted that the first part of the book is not by Hubbard and that the second part was not written by Hubbard but edited from four of his lectures given in April 1957 in London. These lectures are available since March 2005 with a transcription which makes it possible to see how the book text was edited from the lectures. The book was not reissued in June 2007 as part of the [[Golden Age of Knowledge]] program. Among the text removed from the book in later editions:

*"Alleviation of the remote effects and increased tolerance to radiation have been claimed as a result." (pg.49)
*"How is it that gamma rays go through walls but don't go through bodies?....I can fortunately tell you what is happening when a body gets hurt by atomic radiation. It RESISTS the rays! The wall doesn't resist the rays and [[Gamma ray#Health effects|the body does]]." (pg.79)
*"Scientology is the principle {{sic}} agency that is preventing and treating people for radiation at this time." (pg.110)
*"[[Dianazene]] runs out radiation – or what appears to be radiation.  It also proofs a person against radiation to some degree.  It also turns on and runs out incipient cancer.  I have seen it run out skin cancer.  A man who didn't have much liability to skin cancer (only had a few moles) took Dianazene.  His whole jaw turned into a raw mass of cancer.  He kept on taking Dianazene and it disappeared after a while.  I was looking at a case of cancer that might have happened." (pg. 123–124)

==Hubbard's qualifications==

Despite calling himself a nuclear physicist (some editions of the book even call him "one of America's first nuclear physicists" on the dustjacket), Hubbard was not a qualified physicist. His degree was from the unaccredited [[Sequoia University]], a [[diploma mill]]. The one course in nuclear physics Hubbard took was in 1931 at [[The George Washington University|George Washington University]], whose records indicate that he scored an F in the course.<ref>{{cite web | title = Official Transcript of the Record of Lafayette Ronald Hubbard | publisher = George Washington University | date = April 24, 1941 | url = https://lermanet.com/L_Ron_Hubbard/mr142.html | accessdate = 2006-07-30 }}</ref> Hubbard dropped out of school shortly thereafter, with a 2.28 [[grade point average]].<ref name=shannon>{{Cite web |last=Shannon |first=Michael Linn |url=https://lermanet.com/shannon/ |title=A Biography of L. Ron Hubbard}}</ref>

Hubbard referred to himself as a nuclear physicist on many occasions in the 1950s, such as in the tape-recorded 1956 lecture ''A Postulate Out of a Golden Age'', where he not only claimed to be a nuclear physicist, but that he was offered (and turned down) a U.S. Government post as one. This comment has been edited out of the CD version of the lecture currently offered by the L. Ron Hubbard Classic Lectures series.

The book was mentioned in the resulting report of an official inquiry in Australia:
{{Blockquote |text="The Board heard evidence from a highly qualified radiologist who has made a special study of radiation and its effects. He said that Hubbard's knowledge of radiation, as displayed by his writings in ''All About Radiation'', was the 'sort of knowledge that perhaps a boy who has read Intermediate Physics might, with a lot of misapprehensions and lack of understanding, demonstrate'. ... From this witness's evidence it is apparent that Hubbard is completely incompetent to deal with the subject of radiation and that his knowledge of nuclear physics is distorted, inaccurate, mistaken and negligible. No evidence was called which disputed in any way these conclusions." |author=[[Kevin Victor Anderson]] in ''[[Anderson Report|Report of the Board of Inquiry into Scientology]]'' (1965) {{r|andersonreport}} }}

In February 1966, Hubbard defended his mail-order degree: "I was a Ph.D., Sequoia's [sic] University and therefore a perfectly valid doctor under the laws of the State of California".  But only a month later, he announced: "having reviewed the damage being done in our society with nuclear physics and psychiatry by persons calling themselves "Doctor" [I] do hereby resign in protest my university degree as a Doctor of philosophy (Ph. D.)".<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Cowen/essays/radiation.html |title=Hysterical Radiation and Bogus Science |first=Chris |last=Owen |year=1997}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Purification Rundown]]
* ''[[Clear Body, Clear Mind]]''
* [[Bibliography of Scientology]]

== References ==
{{Reflist|refs=

<ref name="andersonreport">{{cite report |title=Report of the Board of Inquiry into Scientology |url=https://archive.org/details/vparl-1965-66-no-9-recognized/mode/1up?view=theater |first=Kevin Victor |last=Anderson |author-link=Kevin Victor Anderson |year=1965 |publisher=Government Printer, Melbourne |page=53 |chapter=Chapter 7. Hubbard's Scientific Deficiencies}} ([https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Cowen/audit/andrhome.html html version])</ref>

<ref name="rothstein">{{cite book |editor1-last=Lewis |editor1-first=James R. |editor1-link=James R. Lewis (scholar) |editor2-first=Olav |editor2-last=Hammer |editor2-link=Olav Hammer |title=The Invention of Sacred Tradition |chapter=Scientology, scripture, and sacred tradition |first=Mikael |last=Rothstein |author-link=Mikael Rothstein |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=2007 |pages=18–37 |isbn=9780521864794 |doi=10.1017/CBO9780511488450.002}}</ref>

}}

==External links==
* [https://openlibrary.org/works/OL580865W/All_about_radiation Full text of book] available via online book loan at [[Open Library]]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/19980130182551/http://lronhubbard.org/p_jpg/book/html/SL8M.HTM Marketing description of book in 1998]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20061020131643/http://www.carolineletkeman.org/refund/docs/aar-claims.html Book jacket in 1967]

{{Scientology}}
{{L. Ron Hubbard}}
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[[Category:Books published by the Church of Scientology]]
[[Category:1957 fiction books]]
[[Category:Works by L. Ron Hubbard]]
[[Category:Pseudoscience literature]]
[[Category:English-language books]]