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The Church of Scientology The Church of Scientology The first thing to know is that it is almost impossible to figure out what is actually true in regards to the founder of Scientology’s life as L. Ron Hubbard almost never told the truth. His son is quoted as saying "I would say that 99 percent of what my father has written about his own life is false." --- L. Ron Hubbard Jr. With that in mind: The Church of Scientology was founded in 1954 based on the teachings of an American author named L. Ron Hubbard. Lafayette Ronald Hubbard was born on March 13, 1911, in Tilden, Nebraska. March 13, 1911 – January 24, 1986 This is from Hubbard’s own auto Biography (the one he wrote about Himself): • The son of a naval commander, Hubbard moved to Montana at the age of two and traveled with his family over much of the country. • His mother, who had attended teacher's college, tutored Hubbard at home, and he learned to read and write at a young age. • As a young boy, Hubbard established a friendship with a tribe of Blackfoot Indians living near his Helena, Montana home. This unique opportunity enabled him to learn much about the culture, customs and legends of the tribe. At the age of six, Hubbard was given the rare honor of becoming a blood brother of the Blackfoot Indians. L. Ron lived in Helena, Montana when he was four. The nearest Blackfoot Reservation was over 100 miles away...AND the Blackfoot Indians do not conduct a blood-brother ceremony, it is more Hollywood legend than truth. • In 1923, Hubbard moved with his family to Seattle, Washington, where he joined the Boy Scouts. At the age of 13, he became the youngest Eagle Scout ever. He was 13 when he became an Eagle scout but 12 other boys also became Eagles at 13 that year and the boy scouts do not keep record of who the youngest Scout was. • The same year, the young Hubbard traveled to Washington, D.C. by way of the Panama Canal. Along the way, he established another influential friendship, this time with Naval Commander Joseph C. Thompson. Commander Thompson had been sent by the US Navy Marine Corps to study under Sigmund Freud, and he taught Hubbard much about Freudian theory. • In 1927, Hubbard embarked on the first of his many journeys to Asia. By the age of 19, he had traveled more than 250,000 miles - including China, Japan, Guam, and the Philippines. • In the course of these travels, he befriended Old Mayo, a Beijing magician, spent time at Buddhist lamaseries in the Western Hills of China, and spent time with nomadic bandits of Mongolian descent. For all the wonders of these lands and all his respect for those whom he encountered, he still saw much that concerned him: Chinese beggars willing themselves to die above open graves in Beijing, children who wore less than rags, widespread ignorance and despair. And in the end, he came to the inescapable conclusion that despite the wisdom of its ancient texts, the East did not have the answers to the miseries of the human condition. It remained evident in the degradation and sorrow of its people. • In 1929, Hubbard returned to the United States and resumed his formal education. After graduating from the Woodword School for Boys in Washington, D.C., he enrolled in the mathematics and engineering program at George Washington University. The dust jacket of Hubbard's 1957 book All About Radiation: "...we have the sane and sober views of a medical doctor on the physical facts and consequences of the actual atomic blast and the diseases resulting from it.” L. Ron Hubbard, who was one of the first nuclear physicists in the United States, has interpreted these facts and related them to human livingness, governments and the control of populations." The original dust jacket of Hubbard's treatise on all things radiatory makes the claim that he is BOTH a nuclear physicist and a medical doctor. Hubbard flunked out of the only course he ever took in nuclear physics. And because his grade point average was abysmally low, he eventually dropped out of college altogether. In the course of his “study,” Hubbard theorized that subatomic particles might assist in understanding how the human mind worked, and recognized the great importance of keeping mankind under control in light of atomic studies. He also became keenly disappointed with the knowledge of the psychologists he consulted with. As Hubbard described it: To be very blunt, it was very obvious that I was dealing with and living in a culture which knew less about the mind than the lowest primitive tribe I had ever come in contact with. Knowing also that people in the East were not able to reach as deeply and predictably into the riddles of the mind as I had been led to expect, I knew I would have to do a lot of research. Scientologists say, “Thus, the result of Hubbard's many travels, experiences, and studies was a determination to discover how the human mind works. Hubbard left college before graduating and made the world his research laboratory.” His research was financed by becoming one of the most famous authors of the 1930s. He wrote well over 200 novels and short stories in the genres of science fiction, western, mystery and adventure. In 1938, Hubbard discovered what he believed to be the common denominator of existence, which was: SURVIVE. In a philosophic work entitled "Excalibur," Hubbard wrote: I suddenly realized that survival was the pin on which you could hang the rest of this with adequate and ample proof. It’s a very simple problem. Idiotically simple! That’s why it never got solved. Nobody has ever looked at anything being that simple to do that much. So what do we find as the simplicities of solution? The simplicities of solution lie in this: that life, all life, is trying to survive. And life is composed of two things: the material universe and an X-factor. And this X- factor is something that can evidently organize, and mobilize the material universe. • Hubbard served as a Navy Lieutenant in World War II/ The bloodshed and its effects on “man's mind” that he observed made him more determined than ever to discover the answers to the human mind. While he did serve during World War II, his greatest feat was nearly starting a war with Mexico by conducting unauthorized gunnery exercises in Mexico's territorial waters. Before serving him a formal admonition and actually demoting Hubbard, his commanding officers made the effort to call Hubbard an incompetent in a report: "Consider this officer lacking in the essential qualities of judgment, leadership and cooperation...Not considered qualified for command or promotion at this time. Recommend duty on a large vessel where he can be properly supervised." http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9f/Hubbardfitrep-b.gif In My Philosophy, published in 1965: Hubbard claims to have been in almost every battle of WW2 and won more medals than just about anyone. But Hubbard actually spent more time in the infirmary than anywhere else. This is the list of his complaints: malaria, ulcers, conjunctivitis, headaches, depression, more conjunctivitis, bursitis, foot problems, weakening vision, psychological trauma from hardcore combat, arthritis, bursitis again, (this time with calcification). He tried to get medical help from the VA even in the 1950’s. In 1945, he was hospitalized at Oak Knoll Naval Hospital in Oakland, California "Blinded with injured optic nerves, and lame with physical injuries to hip and back, at the end of World War II, I faced an almost non-existent future...” (My Philosophy, published in 1965). While recovering, he took the opportunity to experiment with the idea that mental blocks can prevent medical treatments from being effective. He found this theory to work on numerous patients, and concluded: "Thought is boss." After the war, Hubbard continued to test his hypotheses on a broad sample of people from all over the United States. He is said to have helped over 400 hundred people become healthier with the procedures he had developed, including himself. These procedures came to be called "Dianetics." In 1949, Hubbard's first published article on Dianetics appeared in the Explorers Club Journal. In May 1950, Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health was published, and went on to sell over 17 million copies. He wrote six books in 1951 on Dianetics technology and began lecturing all over the country. According to the Church of Scientology, over 750 groups were putting Dianetics technology into practice by the end of 1950. In 1952, Hubbard built on the existing framework set forth in Dianetics, and published a new set of teachings as Scientology, a religious philosophy. In December 1953, Hubbard incorporated three churches – a "Church of American Science", a "Church of Scientology" and a "Church of Spiritual Engineering" – in Camden, New Jersey. On February 18, 1954, with Hubbard's blessing, some of his followers set up the first local Church of Scientology, the Church of Scientology of California, adopting the "aims, purposes, principles and creed of the Church of American Science, as founded by L. Ron Hubbard." The movement spread, both in the United States and other English-speaking countries such as Britain, Ireland, South Africa and Australia. The second local Church of Scientology to be set up, after the one in California, was in Auckland, New Zealand. In 1955, Hubbard established the Founding Church of Scientology in Washington, D.C. In 1957, the Church of Scientology of California was granted tax-exempt status by the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and so, for a time, were other local churches.
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