article

Lafayette Ronald Hubbard (13 March 1911 – 24 January 1986), better known as L. Ron Hubbard, was an American pulp fiction and science fiction Battlefield Earth home page author and founder of Scientology and Dianetics. A controversial public figure, many details of his life are subjects of contention. The Church of Scientology has produced numerous official biographies which present Hubbard's character and his multi-faceted accomplishments in an exalted light. L. Ron Hubbard Site (accessed 4/15/06) Biographies of Hubbard by independent journalists and accounts by former scientologists paint a much darker picture of Hubbard and in many cases contradict the material presented by the Church. Corydon, Bent L. Ron Hubbard: Messiah or Madman (free online version) also by Barricade Books; Revised edition (25 July, 1992) ISBN 0942637577Miller, Russell Bare-faced messiah: The true story of L. Ron Hubbard (free online version) also by publisher M. Joseph (1987) ISBN 0718127641

Early life

L. Ron Hubbard was born in 1911 in Tilden, Nebraska, to Harry Ross Hubbard (1886 - 1975) and Ledora May Waterbury, whom Harry had married in 1909. In his youth, Hubbard was an Eagle Scout.

His father Harry was born "Henry August Wilson" in Fayette, Iowa but was orphaned as an infant and adopted by the Hubbards, a farming family of Fredericksburg, Iowa. Harry joined the United States Navy in 1904, leaving the service in 1908, then re-enlisting in 1917 when the US declared war on Germany. He served in the Navy until 1946, reaching the rank of Lieutenant-Commander in 1934.

His mother May was a feminist who had trained to become a high school teacher. Her father, Lafayette O. Waterbury (born 1864), was a veterinarian turned coal merchant. Her mother, Ida Corinne DeWolfe, was the daughter of affluent banker John DeWolfe. May's paternal grandfather Abram Waterbury was from the Catskill Mountains of New York and later headed West, employed as a veterinarian.

Education, pulp fiction, and military service

During the 1920s, L. Ron Hubbard travelled twice to the Far East to visit his parents during his father's posting to the United States Navy base on Guam.

After graduating from Woodward School for Boys in 1930, he enrolled at The George Washington University, where he took a course in civil engineering. However, his grades were consistently poor and university records show that he attended for only two years, was on academic probation, failed in physics, and dropped out in 1931. One of his classes for one year of the course was on "atomic and molecular phenomena"; on the basis of this, he later claimed to have been a "nuclear physicist", though his records showed that he only scored an F in this class.

Hubbard later claimed to have been awarded a PhD by Sequoia University in California. However, this non-accredited body was later investigated by the Californian state authorities on the grounds of being a mail-order "degree mill" and Hubbard later publicly "resigned" his degree after it had become the subject of comment in the press.[http://www.lermanet.com/L_Ron_Hubbard/mr142.htm

Hubbard next pursued writing, publishing many stories and novellas in pulp magazines during the 1930s.Among his published stories were "Sea Fangs", "The Carnival of Death", "Man-Killers of the Air", and "The Squad that Never Came Back"; among the pseudonyms Hubbard used were Rene Lafayette, Legionnaire 148, Lieutenant Scott Morgan, Morgan de Wolf, Michael de Wolf, Michael Keith, Kurt von Rachen, Captain Charles Gordon, Legionnaire 14830, Elron, Bernard Hubbel, Captain B.A. Northrup, Joe Blitz and Winchester Remington Colt. He became a well-known author in the science fiction and fantasy genres, and also published westerns and adventure stories. Critics often cite Final Blackout, set in a war-ravaged future Europe, and Fear, a psychological horror story, as the best examples of Hubbard's pulp fiction. His 1938 manuscript "Excalibur" contained many concepts and ideas that later turned up in Scientology. [http://www.rapidnet.com/~jbeard/bdm/Cults/scientol.htm

Hubbard married Margaret "Polly" Grubb in 1933, with whom he fathered two children, L. Ron, Jr. (1934–1991) and Katherine May (born 1936). They lived in Bremerton, Washington during the late 1930s.

In June 1941, with war looming, Hubbard joined the United States Navy as a lieutenant junior grade. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, he was posted to Australia but was returned home, possibly after quarrelling with the US Naval Attaché, who rated him "unsatisfactory for any assignment". Subsequently, he was given command of the harbor protection vessel USS YP-422, based in Boston, Massachusetts. Again, he fell out with his superior officer, who rated him "not temperamentally fitted for independent command." These statements are in stark contrast with official Scientologist literature, which often portrays Hubbard as a brave and heroic figure during the war.

Hubbard was relieved of command and transferred to a naval school in Florida where he was trained in anti-submarine warfare. On graduating, he was given command of the newly built subchaser USS PC-815 (based in Astoria, Oregon). Shortly after taking the PC-815 on her maiden voyage from Astoria to San Diego, California, his crew detected what he believed to be two Japanese submarines near the mouth of the Columbia River. They spent the next three days bombarding the area with depth charges, after which Hubbard claimed at least one Japanese submarine had been sunk. A subsequent investigation by the US Navy concluded Hubbard's vessel had in fact been attacking a "known magnetic deposit" on the seabed, and postwar casualty assessments found no Japanese submarines had been anywhere near the Columbia River at the time.

Shortly after reaching San Diego, Hubbard ordered his crew to practice their gunnery by shelling one of the Coronado Islands, a small Mexican archipelago off the northwest coast of Baja California, in the belief it was uninhabited and belonged to the United States. Neither assumption was correct. The Mexican government complained and following a brief investigation, Hubbard was relieved of command with a sharp letter of admonition.

Most of Hubbard's wartime service was spent ashore in the continental United States. He was mustered out of the active service list in late 1945, and continued to draw disability pay for arthritis, bursitis, and conjunctivitis (pink eye) for years afterwards, long after he claimed to have discovered the secret of how to cure these ailments. In June 1947 the Navy attempted to promote him to Lieutenant Commander, but Hubbard appears not to have learned of this and so never accepted it; consequently he remained a Lieutenant. He resigned his commission in 1950.

In later years, Hubbard made a number of claims about his military record that are difficult to reconcile with the government's documentation of his service years. For example, Hubbard claimed he had sustained wounds "in combat on the island of Java" but his service record offers no indication he came anywhere near Java, and places him in New York on the day (7 December, 1941, the day of the attack on Pearl Harbor) he was supposedly landed on Java by a naval destroyer. He also claimed to have received 21 medals and awards, including two Purple Hearts and a "Unit Citation". The Church of Scientology has circulated a US Navy notice of separation (a form numbered DD214, completed on leaving active duty) as evidence of Hubbard's wartime service. However, the US Navy's copy of Hubbard's DD214 is very different, listing a much more modest record. Additional convenience link at Scientology version and the available facts" *" target="_blank" >[http://www.spaink.net/cos/warhero/medals.htm

Dianetics

In May 1950, Hubbard published a book describing the self-improvement technique of Dianetics, titled The Modern Science of Mental Health. With Dianetics, Hubbard introduced the concept of "auditing," a two-person question-and-answer therapy that focused on painful memories. According to Hubbard, dianetic auditing could eliminate emotional problems, cure physical illnesses, and increase intelligence. In his introduction to Dianetics, Hubbard declared that "the creation of dianetics is a milestone for man comparable to his discovery of fire and superior to his inventions of the wheel and arch."

Unable to elicit interest from mainstream publishers or medical professionals, Hubbard turned to the legendary science fiction editor John W. Campbell, who had for years published Hubbard's science fiction stories. Beginning in late 1949, Campbell publicized Dianetics in the pages of Astounding Science Fiction. The science fiction community was divided about the merits of Hubbard's claims. Campbell's star author Isaac Asimov criticized Dianetics' unscientific aspects, and veteran author Jack Williamson described Dianetics as "a lunatic revision of Freudian psychology" that "had the look of a wonderfully rewarding scam." But Campbell and novelist A. E. van Vogt enthusiastically embraced Dianetics: Campbell became Hubbard's treasurer, and van Vogt—convinced his wife's health had been transformed for the better by auditing—interrupted his writing career to run the first Los Angeles Dianetics center.

Dianetics was a hit, selling 150,000 copies within a year of publication. With success, Dianetics became an object of critical scrutiny by the press and the medical establishment. In September 1950, The New York Times published a cautionary statement on the topic by the American Psychological Association that read in part, "the association calls attention to the fact that these claims are not supported by empirical evidence," and went on to recommend against use of "the techniques peculiar to Dianetics" until such time it had been validated by scientific testing. Consumer Reports, in an August 1951 assessment of Dianetics*, dryly noted "one looks in vain in Dianetics for the modesty usually associated with announcement of a medical or scientific discovery," and stated that the book had become "the basis for a new cult." The article observed "in a study of L. Ron Hubbard's text, one is impressed from the very beginning by a tendency to generalization and authoritative declarations unsupported by evidence or facts." Consumer Reports warned its readers against the "possibility of serious harm resulting from the abuse of intimacies and confidences associated with the relationship between auditor and patient," an especially serious risk, they concluded, "in a cult without professional traditions."

On the heels of the book's first wave of popularity, the Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation was incorporated in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Branch offices were opened in five other US cities before the end of 1950 (though most folded within a year). Hubbard soon abandoned the Foundation, denouncing a number of his former associates as communists.

Hubbard's private behavior became the subject of unflattering headlines when his second wife, Sara Northrup, filed for divorce in late 1950, citing that Hubbard was, unknown to her, still married to his first wife at the time he married Sara. Her divorce papers also accused Hubbard of kidnapping their baby daughter Alexis, and of conducting "systematic torture, beatings, strangulations and scientific torture experiments."Lattin, Don. "Scientology Founder's Family Life Far From What He Preached", San Francisco Chronicle, February 12 2001

Scientology

In mid-1952, Hubbard expanded Dianetics into a secular philosophy which he called Scientology. That year, Hubbard also married his third wife, Mary Sue Whipp, to whom he remained married for the rest of his life. With Mary Sue, Hubbard fathered four more children—Diana, Quentin, Suzette and Arthur—over the next six years.

In December 1953, Hubbard declared Scientology a religion and the first Church of Scientology was founded in Camden, New Jersey. He moved to England at about the same time, and during the remainder of the 1950s he supervised the growing organization from an office in London. In 1959, he bought Saint Hill Manor near the Sussex town of East Grinstead, a Georgian manor house owned by the Maharajah of Jaipur. This became the world headquarters of Scientology.

Hubbard claimed to have conducted years of intensive research into the nature of human existence; to describe his findings, he developed an elaborate vocabulary with many newly coined terms He codified a set of "axioms" [http://www.scientology.org/wis/WISENG/34/34-scax.htm and an "applied religious philosophy" that promised to improve the condition of the human spirit, which he called the "Thetan." The bulk of Scientology focuses on the "rehabilitation" of the thetan.

Hubbard's followers believed his "technology" gave them access to their past lives, the traumas of which led to failures in the present unless they were audited. By this time, Hubbard had introduced a biofeedback device to the auditing process, which he called a "Hubbard Electropsychometer" or "E-meter." It was invented in the 1940s by a chiropractor and Dianetics enthusiast named Volney Mathison. This machine, related to the electronic lie detectors of the time, is used by Scientologists in auditing to evaluate "mental masses" surrounding the thetan. These "masses" are claimed to impede the thetan from realizing its full potential.

Hubbard claimed a good deal of physical disease was psychosomatic, and one who, like himself, had attained the enlightened state of "clear" and become an "Operating Thetan" would be relatively disease free. According to biographers, Hubbard went to great lengths to suppress his recourse to modern medicine, attributing symptoms to attacks by malicious forces, both spiritual and earthly. Hubbard insisted humanity was imperiled by such forces, which were the result of negative memories (or "engrams") stored in the unconscious or "reactive" mind, some carried by the immortal thetans for billions of years. Thus, Hubbard claimed, the only possibility for spiritual salvation was a concerted effort to "clear the planet," that is, to bring the benefits of Scientology to all people everywhere, and attack all forces, social and spiritual, hostile to the interests of the movement.

Church members were expected to pay fixed donation rates for courses, auditing, books and E-meters, all of which proved very lucrative for the Church, which paid emoluments directly to Hubbard and his family. In a case fought by the Founding Church of Scientology of Washington, D.C. over its tax-exempt status (revoked in 1958 because of these emoluments) the findings of fact in the case included that Hubbard had personally received over $108,000 from the Church and affiliates over a four-year period, over and above the percentage of gross income (usually 10%) he received from Church-affiliated organizations.Enquiry into the Practice and Effects of Scientology, Report by Sir John Foster, K.B.E., Q.C., M.P., Published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London December 1971. Cited at http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Cowen/audit/fosthome.html . However, Hubbard denied such emoluments many times in writing, proclaiming he never received any money from the Church.

Legal difficulties and life on the high seas

Scientology became a focus of controversy across the English-speaking world during the mid-1960s, with Britain, New Zealand, South Africa, the Australian state of Victoria and the Canadian province of Ontario all holding public inquiries into Scientology's activities. *

Hubbard left this unwanted attention behind in 1966, when he moved to Rhodesia, following Ian Smith's Unilateral Declaration of Independence. Attempting to ingratiate himself with the white minority government, he offered to invest large sums in Rhodesia's economy, then hit by UN sanctions, but was asked to leave the country.

In 1967, L. Ron Hubbard further distanced himself from the controversy attached to Scientology by resigning as executive director of the church and appointing himself "Commodore" of a small fleet of Scientologist-crewed ships that spent the next eight years cruising the Mediterranean Sea. Here, Hubbard formed the religious order known as the "Sea Organization," or "Sea Org," with titles and uniforms. The Sea Org subsequently became the management group within Hubbard's Scientology empire. He returned to the United States in the mid-1970s and lived for a while in Florida.

In 1977, Scientology offices on both coasts of the United States were raided by FBI agents seeking evidence of Operation Snow White, a church-run espionage network. Hubbard's wife Mary Sue and a dozen other senior Scientology officials were convicted in 1979 of conspiracy against the United States federal government, while Hubbard himself was named by federal prosecutors as an "unindicted co-conspirator." Facing intense media interest and many subpoenas, he secretly retired to a ranch in tiny Creston, California, north of San Luis Obispo.

In 1978, Hubbard was convicted of felony fraud and sentenced to four years in jail and a 35,000₣ fine by a French court. Hubbard refused to serve his jail time or pay his fine and went into hiding.

Later life

During the 1980s, Hubbard returned to science fiction, publishing Battlefield Earth and Mission Earth, the latter being an enormous book, published as a ten volume series. He also wrote an unpublished screenplay called Revolt in the Stars which dramatizes Scientology's "Advanced Level" teachings. Hubbard's later science fiction sold well and received mixed reviews and press reports describing how sales of Hubbard's books were artificially inflated by Scientologists purchasing large numbers of copies in order to manipulate the bestseller charts. McIntyre, Mike (Apr. 15, 1990). "Hubbard Hot-Author Status Called Illusion". San Diego Union, p. 1. While claiming to be entirely divorced from the Scientology management, Hubbard continued to draw income from the Scientology enterprises; Forbes magazine estimated his 1982 Scientology-related income exceeded US $40 million.

Hubbard died at his ranch on 24 January, 1986, reportedly from a stroke. He had not been seen in public for the previous five years. Scientology attorneys arrived to claim his body, which they sought to have cremated immediately. They were blocked by the San Luis Obispo County medical examiner, whose examination revealed high levels of a drug called hydroxyzine (brand name Vistaril), which is sometimes used for its antihistamine or anti-emetic properties, but is also psychoactive (which would make it disapproved of, if not forbidden, under Scientology doctrines). The Church of Scientology announced Hubbard had deliberately "discarded the body" to do "higher level spiritual research," unencumbered by mortal confines.

In May 1987, David Miscavige, one of L. Ron Hubbard’s former personal assistants, assumed the position of Chairman of the Religious Technology Center (RTC), a corporation that owns the trademarked names and symbols of Dianetics and Scientology. Although Religious Technology Center is a separate corporation from the Church of Scientology International, Miscavige is the ecclesiastical leader of the religion. Rev. Heber Jentzsch is the President of Church of Scientology International. *

Controversial episodes

L. Ron Hubbard's life is embroiled in controversy, as is the history of Scientology (see Scientology controversy). His son, L. Ron Hubbard, Jr. claimed in 1983 "99% of what my father ever wrote or said about himself is totally untrue." *

Some documents written by Hubbard himself suggest he regarded Scientology as a business, not a religion. In one letter dated 10 April, 1953, he says calling Scientology a religion solves "a problem of practical business", and status as a religion achieves something "more equitable...with what we've got to sell". In a 1962 official policy letter, he said "Scientology 1970 is being planned on a religious organization basis throughout the world. This will not upset in any way the usual activities of any organization. It is entirely a matter for accountants and solicitors." A Reader's Digest article of May 1980 quoted Hubbard as saying in the 1940s "Writing for a penny a word is ridiculous. If a man really wants to make a million dollars, the best way would be to start his own religion." *

According to The Visual Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, ed. Brian Ash, Harmony Books, 1977:

"...began making statements to the effect that any writer who really wished to make money should stop writing and develop [a religion, or devise a new psychiatric method. Harlan Ellison's version (Time Out, UK, No 332) is that Hubbard is reputed to have told W. Campbell, "I'm going to invent a religion that's going to make me a fortune. I'm tired of writing for a penny a word." Sam Moskowitz, a chronicler of science fiction, has reported that he himself heard Hubbard make a similar statement, but there is no first-hand evidence".

In a 1983 interview, L. Ron, Jr. said "according to him and my mother" he was the result of a failed abortion and recalls at six years old seeing his father performing an abortion on his mother with a coat hanger. In the same interview, he said "Scientology is a power-and-money-and-intelligence-gathering game" and described his father as "only interested in money, sex, booze, and drugs". *

One controversial aspect of Hubbard's early life revolves around his association with Jack Parsons, an aeronautics professor at Caltech and an associate of the British occultist Aleister Crowley. Hubbard and Parsons were allegedly engaged in the practice of ritual magick in 1946, including an extended set of sex magick rituals called the Babalon Working, intended to summon a goddess or "moonchild." (Among occultists today, it is widely accepted that Hubbard derived a large part of 'Dianetics' from Golden Dawn occult ideas such as the Holy Guardian Angel.) The Church insists Hubbard was a US government intelligence agent on a mission to end Parsons' magickal activities and to "rescue" a girl Parsons was "using" for magickal purposes. Critics dismiss these claims as after-the-fact rationalizations. Crowley recorded in his notes that he considered Hubbard a "stupid lout" who made off with Parsons' money and girlfriend in an "ordinary confidence trick". Discussions of these events can be found in the critical biographies Bare-Faced Messiah, A Piece of Blue Sky and in The Marburg Journal of Religion.

Hubbard later married the girl he claimed to have rescued, Sara Northrup. This marriage was an act of bigamy, as Hubbard had abandoned, but not divorced, his first wife and children as soon as he left the Navy (he divorced his first wife more than a year after he had remarried). Both women allege Hubbard physically abused them. He is also alleged to have once kidnapped Sara's infant, Alexis, taking her to Cuba. Later, he disowned Alexis, claiming she was actually Jack Parsons' child.

Hubbard had another son in 1954, Quentin Hubbard, who was groomed to one day replace him as the head of the Scientology. However, Quentin was deeply depressed, allegedly because he was homosexual and his father was homophobic, and wanted to leave Scientology and become a pilot. As Scientology rejects homosexuality as a sexual perversion and views mental health professionals and the drugs they can prescribe as fraudulent and oppressive, Quentin had no avenues available to deal with his depression. Quentin attempted suicide in 1974 and then died in 1976 under mysterious circumstances that might have been a suicide or a murder.

Hubbard has been interpreted as both a savior (Scientologists refer to him as "The Friend of Mankind") and a con-artist. These sharply contrasting views have been a source of hostility between Hubbard supporters and critics. A California court judgement in 1984 involving Gerald Armstrong, who had been assigned the task of writing Hubbard's biography, highlights the extreme opposition of the two sides. The judgement quotes a 1970's police agency of the French Government and says in part:

"In addition to violating and abusing its own members' civil rights, the organization over the years with its "Fair Game" doctrine has harassed and abused those persons not in the Church whom it perceives as enemies. The organization clearly is schizophrenic and paranoid, and the bizarre combination seems to be a reflection of its founder LRH Church of Scientology of California vs. Gerald Armstrong, June 20 1984. [http://www.planetkc.com/sloth/sci/breck.html" target="_blank" >*

"Fair Game" was introduced by Hubbard, and incites Scientologists to use criminal behavior, deception and exploitation of the legal system to resist "Suppressive Persons", i.e. people or groups that "actively seeks to suppress or damage Scientology or a Scientologist by Suppressive Acts". He defined it "Fair Game" as:

ENEMY — SP Order. Fair game. May be deprived of property or injured by any means by any Scientologist without any discipline of the Scientologist. May be tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed.

The Church of Scientology today claims that it has removed those policies from its doctrine and it is no longer in existence, but this claim is just as vigorously contested by its critics. (See Fair Game (Scientology) for a more detailed examination.)

Conflicting interpretations of Hubbard's life are presented in the online version of Russell Miller's biography of Hubbard, Bare Faced Messiah; this largely critical version includes links to Scientology's official accounts of Hubbard's past, embedded within Miller's description of the same history.

Several issues surrounding Hubbard's death and disposition of his estate are also subjects of controversy — a swift cremation with no autopsy; the destruction of coroner's photographs; coroner's evidence of the drug Vistaril present in Hubbard's blood; questions about the whereabouts of Dr. Eugene Denk (Hubbard's physician) during Hubbard's death, and the changing of wills and trust documents the day before his death, resulting in the bulk of Hubbard's estate being transferred not to his family, but to Scientology.

Hubbard sometimes displayed racist attitudes that were at odds with the picture his followers try to present of him. For instance, when Hubbard visited China at the age of seventeen, he made diary entries such as: "As a Chinaman can not live up to a thing, he always drags it down." and "They smell of all the baths they didnt take. The trouble with China is, there are too many chinks here." Similarly, Hubbard described the Lama temples as "miserably cold and very shabby . . . The people worshipping have voices like bull-frogs and beat a drum and play a brass horn to accompany their singing (?)" and called them "very odd and heathenish".

While such attitudes might not be especially surprising for a teenager born in 1911, they are vastly at odds with the stories he would later tell and his followers would repeat: "Among other wonders, Ron told of watching monks meditate for weeks on end, contemplating higher truths." "... he took advantage of this unique opportunity to study Far Eastern culture. ... he befriended and learned ... a thoroughly insightful Beijing magician who represented the last of the line of Chinese magicians from the court of Kublai Khan. ... Old Mayo was also well versed in China’s ancient wisdom that had been handed down from generation to generation. Ron passed many evenings in the company of such wise men, eagerly absorbing their words." "... he closely examined the surrounding culture. In addition to the local Tartar tribes, he spent time with nomadic bandits originally from Mongolia." "These sojourns in Asia and the Pacific islands had a profound effect, giving Ron a subjective understanding of Eastern philosophy." "... the world itself was his classroom, and he studied in it voraciously, recording what he saw and learned in his ever-present diaries, which he carefully preserved for future reference." Hubbard even claimed to have been made a lama priest himself by Old Mayo. Hubbard's "ever-present diaries" were introduced into evidence in the Armstrong trial; they make no mention of Old Mayo the Beijing magician or nomad bandits and no reflection on Eastern philosophy.

Similarly, L. Ron Hubbard has said he is in favour of apartheid in South Africa: "Having viewed slum clearance projects in most major cities of the world may I state that you have conceived and created in the Johannesburg townships what is probably the most impressive and adequate resettlement activity in existence." L. Ron Hubbard in a letter to H.F. Verwoerd (widely considered to be the architect of South Africa’s apartheid system) dated November 7, 1960, reprinted in K.T.C. Kotzé, INQUIRY INTO THE EFFECTS AND PRACTICES OF SCIENTOLOGY, p. 59, Pretoria 1973

Parody

Hubbard was awarded the 1994 Ig Nobel Prize in Literature for "his crackling Good Book, Dianetics, which is highly profitable to mankind — or to a portion thereof". The presenter observed he was also the most prolific posthumous author that year.

It is thought that Hubbard was referenced in the movie Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas as Professor L. Ron Bumquist during the Las Vegas police convention on drugs.

In 2001, an independent film called The Profit was produced, which featured a character called L. Conrad Powers, founder of the Church of Spiritual Science, who used a device called a Mind Meter. Although the producers stressed that any resemblance to Scientology was entirely coincidental, the Church of Scientology obtained an injunction blocking its release. However, some of those who saw the film, even critics of Scientology, derided it as over the top,*

On the South Park episode "Trapped in the Closet", it was claimed that Stan Marsh is L. Ron Hubbard reincarnated and that Hubbard was a "prophet". As a reference to Scientology's litigious tendencies, all the credits at the end of this episode were changed to read "John/Jane Smith". The episode also has an animated version of the Xenu story; in case a viewer might mistakenly think South Park was exaggerating for satiric effect, this sequence is accompanied by a caption reading "This is what Scientologists actually believe". Isaac Hayes, who voiced "Chef" on the show and is himself a Scientologist, ostensibly left the cast on account of this episode. However, it isn't clear whether this was his own decision or a decision of upper-level Scientologists; during a radio interview on The Opie and Anthony Show after the episode aired, Hayes defended South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, saying, "If you take the shit they say seriously, then I'll sell you the Brooklyn Bridge for two dollars". South Park further parodied Scientology when Isaac Hayes left South Park over the issue: in The Return of Chef "Chef" is portrayed as being brainwashed by some "fruity little club," a group of child molesters called the "Super Adventure Club", a veiled reference to Isaac Hayes and his links to Scientology.

Anthony Boucher's murder mystery Rocket to the Morgue (1942) features cameos of members of the Mañana Literary Society of Southern California. Hubbard makes a dual appearance as D. Vance Wimpole and Rene Lafayette (one of his pen names). Jack Parsons is also there as the character Hugo Chantrelle.

In Frank Zappa's rock-opera album Joe's Garage the main character Joe seeks advice from L. Ron Hoover of the First Church of Appliantology, who directs him to a lifestyle of having sex with appliances and robots.

In the David Eddings series of Tamuli books, a silly theatrical character who performs and tells tall tales in front of locals to gain support for a strange cult is named Elron (L. Ron).

Philip K. Dick's short story The Turning Wheel features a post-apocalyptic religion following the teachings of "the Bard, Elron Hu".

Niven and Pournelle's novel Inferno (a retelling of Dante's Inferno) has a description of a one-time science fiction writer who created his own religion "that masks as form of lay psychiatry" and is now - quite literally - in hell as a result.

There have also been numerous other jabs at L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology from other sources; for example, the final city in the computer game Fallout 2 contains the Hubologist cult which is a direct take on Scientology.

Hubbard is also a featured character in the novel The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril by Paul Malmont.

On the Millennium episode "Jose Chung's Doomsday Defense" the (fictional) writer Jose Chung interviews a member of the Church of Selfosophy, founded by his former science fiction writer colleague, J. Onan Goopta.

Steve Martin's movie Bowfinger features a cult called Mindhead whose posh celebrity center is said to be based on a Hollywood facility serving Scientology's star clientele. Steven Soderbergh's Schizopolis features a cult called Eventualism led by one T. Azimuth Schwitters which likewise seems inspired by Hubbard.

James Michener's novel Space features a character named Leopold Strabismus who seems to be based, in part, upon Hubbard.

In Neal Stephenson's book Snow Crash, there is a character named L. Bob Rife who has an ocean-going fleet centered on a surplus aircraft carrier, and populated by mind-controlled followers.

The Snake Oil Wars by Parke Godwin satirizes Hubbard by having him serving his time in Hell as an answering machine.

The song "Ænema", by the band Tool, denounces Hubbard with the line "Fuck L. Ron Hubbard and fuck all his clones".

In the 1986 film Stoogemania, which deals with a Three Stooges fan (Josh Mostel) attempting to break his addiction to the comedy threesome, said fan ends up going to a rehab clinic run by a mysterious figure named L. Ron Howard ('Howard' being the last name shared by Moe, Curly and Shemp.) L. Ron Howard only appears on TV screens at the clinic - he is never seen in person.

Bibliography

Hubbard was an unusually prolific author, but because the majority of Hubbard's writings of the 1950s through to the 1970s were aimed exclusively at Scientologists, the organization founded its own companies to publish his work, Bridge Publications (http://www.bridgepub.com/) for the US market and New Era Publications (http://www.newerapublications.com/nep/index.htm), based in Denmark, for the rest of the world. New volumes of his transcribed lectures continue to be produced; that series alone will ultimately total a projected 110 large volumes. A selection of Hubbard's best-known titles are below; an extensive bibliography of Hubbard's work is available in a separate article.

Fiction

  • Buckskin Brigades (1937), ISBN 0884042804
  • Final Blackout (1940), ISBN 0884043401
  • Fear (1951), ISBN 0884045994
  • Typewriter in the Sky (1951), ISBN 0884049337
  • Battlefield Earth (1982), ISBN 0312069782
  • Mission Earth (1985-87), 10 vols.

Dianetics and Scientology

(total published works are more than 50 feet of shelf space)
  • The Modern Science of Mental Health, New York 1950, ISBN 0884044165
  • Child Dianetics. Dianetic Processing for Children, Wichita, Kansas 1951, ISBN 0884044211
  • Scientology 8-80, Phoenix, Arizona 1952, ISBN 0884044289
  • Dianetics 55!, Phoenix, Arizona 1954, ISBN 0884044173
  • The Evolution of a Science Phoenix, Arizona 1955, ISBN 1403105383
  • Scientology: The Fundamentals of Thought Washington, DC 1956, ISBN 088404503X
  • The Problems of Work Washington, DC 1956, ISBN 0884043770
  • Have You Lived Before This Life?, East Grinstead, Sussex 1960, ISBN 0884044475
  • Scientology: A New Slant on Life, East Grinstead, Sussex 1965, ISBN 1573180378
  • The Volunteer Minister's Handbook Los Angeles 1976, ISBN 0884040399
  • Research and Discovery Series, a chronological series collecting Hubbard's lectures. Vol 1, Copenhagen 1980, ISBN 0884040739
  • The Way to Happiness, Los Angeles 1981, ISBN 0884044114

Notes

Unofficial biographies (online)

External links

Church of Scientology owned sites

Independent studies of L. Ron Hubbard

Directories

1911 births | 1986 deaths | American science fiction writers | Charismatic religious leaders | Cult leaders | Eagle Scouts | Fantasy writers | L. Ron Hubbard | People from Nebraska | Scientologists | Scientology | Western writers

رون هوبارد | Л. Рон Хабърд | L. Ron Hubbard | L. Ron Hubbard | L. Ron hubbard | L. Ron Hubbard | L. Ron. Hubbard | L. Ron Hubbard | ל. רון האברד | Lafajetas Ronaldas Habardas | L. Ron Hubbard | L. Ron Hubbard | L・ロン・ハバード | L. Ron Hubbard | Хаббард, Лафайет Рональд | L. Ron Hubbard | L. Ron Hubbard | 罗恩·贺伯特

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "L. Ron Hubbard".

Home Page • arts • business • computers • games • health • hospitals • home • kids & teens • news • physicians • recreation• reference • regional • science • shopping • society • sports • world