Cult's Records Seized

Police Quiz 2 on Staff of "School"

March 26, 1953

Detroit police Wednesday night seized the books, records and equipment of the Detroit Dianetics and Scientology School at 8901 Dailey Court.

Taken to headquarters for questioning were Earl Cunard, 37, who operates the school at his home, and his assistant, Mrs. Rosa Postel, 35, of 16545 Oakfield.

Inspector Joseph Krug, head of the Special Investigations Bureau, said he did not know what charges, if any, would be placed against Cunard and Mrs. Postel.

A search warrant, signed by Recorder's Judge O.Z. Ide, stated the complaint as operating a vocational school without a license.

Dianetics, the science of mental health, has been called the "poor man's psychiatry." It sprouted as a fad three years ago on the West Coast.

Krug and six officers questioned Cunard and 12 students for more than an hour and a half at the school, which is in the Grand River-Joy area.

The students were not taken to headquarters.

Mrs. Postal had been picked up earlier in the evening by other officers at her home.

"We have not completed our investigation as yet," Krug said. "Those involved are pretty good people."

Working with Krug was Assistant Prosecutor Sam Bresner, but neither would give any details of what they learned. Krug would say only that he acted on "confidential information."

The school, which reportedly has 50 students, has been operating for more than a year. Lessons are said to cost $5 each. Cunard made no statement to reporters.

Dianetics was started in May, 1950, at Los Angeles by L. Ron Hubbard, a former science fiction writer.

Hubbard calls the mental science "the most clearly presented method of psychotherapy and self-improvement ever invented."

Followers of dianetics claim that it can cure psychosomatic ills. A psychosomatic ailment is one that manifests itself physically but stems from the mind.

Hubbard's theory is that the subconscious mind stores away painful experiences, which can affect the body.

The idea is to purge the mind of painful experiences. So the patient lies down, lets his mind slide back on its time track and relates the painful experiences to an auditor.

The auditor may be a professional or simply a friend who is versed in the theory of dianetics.

The theory holds that the patient can think back all the way to his prenatal state and actually remember and repeat things his parents said before he was born.

In this way, according to Hubbard, the mental trouble is removed and the physical ailment disappears.