True enough. I do have a very vivid memory of going to a book store with my mom as a child and seeing a cardboard display of 'Dianetics' as self help, a 'new' guide to 'enlighten', blah, blah, blah... I remember fondly and with humor how my mother walked the few steps to the counter and asked how a book that was just recently sold as science fiction could now be (erroneously) called 'self-help'? The stunned clerk just mumbled some standard line but it did catch the attention of others (and embarassed me, at the time!).
You mention you are a former member. Did you have any difficulty leaving? Did you attain one of the higher levels?
I'm curious in part bc of a highschool classmate. She hasn't been seen in 10 years, she was a member moving up and carefully 'molded' by her older alleged bf turned husband. Already thin, she kept getting thinner and thinner, and later sold many of her possessions including her portion of a local business venture (they hounded her relatives for more). It was creepy and scary, the contact we had with her dwindled and later men appeared at our mutual friends house (she had hired an investigator at her family's request) warning us to cease all contact or else.
Leaving was fairly easy. At that time a large group of disaffected were bailing out. What made it difficult was that I had been in long enough to have drifted away from my non-scientology friends. It was a bit like stepping off into space.
I did go back to properly "route out" and recover the money I had on account. That was annoyingly difficult, but anyone who has a normal amount of stick-to-itiveness could do it. I didn't ask for a refund of what I had paid for and received in services and training, I understand that is significantly more difficult.
Did you attain one of the higher levels?
I achieved OT-II in the church. The really weird confidential stuff starts at OT-III. I did that outside the church. My first response was something like "That's it??? That's what's soooo secret??? You've got to be kidding!!!!"
Prayers for your friend. She needs them.
Dianetics has never been sold as "Science Fiction".lol Hubbard did write alot of Science Fiction and the simple explaination to your observation is that since most of what he wrote had been Science Fiction it was probably simply miss- classified. I have read Dianetics and it was a rather good book. Hubbard went off the deep end with turning what were some good concepts into a religion but he is not the first to make such a mistake. Overall Dianetics struck me as somewhat Jungian...
Like I said scary stuff.