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Chapter 20:
The Truth About L. Ron Hubbard
For heaven's sake, tell them I'm
not God.
-- L. Ron Hubbard, quoted by Eric Barnes, Public Relations Chief of New
York Church of Scientology {1}
Lafayette Ronald
Hubbard, born in 1911 in Tilden, Nebraska, is a man of many talents and
accomplishments, although not quite as many as he claims. In a number of
biographies and autobiographies,{2} both types of which were said to
have been written by him, he claims to have been descended from Count de
Loup,{3} to be part French and Scotch and to have part of his family
come from Little Clacton, Essex. He claims to have been a blood brother
of the Pikuni Indians, "fast friends" with Calvin Coolidge Jr., and to
be the real life model for the book, play, and movie, Mister Roberts.{4}
He also claims to have graduated in mathematics and engineering from
Columbian University (a part of George Washington University), sometimes
claims to have graduated in civil engineering from George Washington
University, to have attended Princeton University (sometimes the
Princeton School of Government) and to have gotten a Ph.D. from Sequoia
University. He was a prolific writer, a singer, an explorer (and claims
to have been a member of the Explorers Club since 1936{5}), a seaman, a
Lieutenant in the navy, who was severely injured in the war.
Many of these things are true; for example, his family does come from
Little Clacton, Essex, he was a writer, he was an explorer (and a member
of the Explorers Club, but since 1940, not 1936 as he claimed), he was
severely injured in the war (and in fact was in a lifeboat for many
days, badly injuring his body and his eyes in the hot Pacific sun). But
there are a number of small unimportant things in his Brief Biography of
L. Ron Hubbard (which his son claims his father really wrote{6}) that
were exposed by the Daily Mail in England as false.{7} Because of these
errors, it tends to cast suspicion, perhaps unjustly, on the rest.
Actually, most of the "errors" in that biography and others, with the
exception of his academic background, were simply sins by omission.
Although Hubbard admits he wrote screenplays and westerns, it was in
science fiction that he made his mark, a fact he conveniently omitted in
his Brief Biography and frequently underplayed elsewhere. This is
important because a science fiction background is not considered good
preparation for the understanding of true scientific phenomena and also
because Hubbard wrote so much science fiction at one time that it would
seem almost impossible that he could have carried on the careful
research he claimed he did to formulate Dianetics upon which Scientology
is based.
Nonetheless, Hubbard says Dianetics was based on his exhaustive research
with 270 subjects,{8} and this research formed the basis of his engram
and other theories. A recent article in Freedom stated that Hubbard
spent thirty-five years researching the mind before Dianetics came
out.{9} If this is true, it means that he started researching at the age
of three. Generally, Hubbard is content to have people believe he spent
twelve years researching Dianetics{10} before coming out with his basic
book, Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health.
He says that the research began with his 1938 book, Excalibur, which
appears to have been the manuscript he claims was stolen by the
Russians. During these twelve years, especially in the last three or
four before Dianetics came out, he wrote at least seventy-eight science
fiction stories alone (under his name, or the pseudonyms of Rene
Lafayette and Kurt Van Strachen){11} not to mention writing in other
fields. With all this writing, it's hard to believe he had the time to
research those 270 subjects properly (to research them properly would
require 540 people; a control group that has not been given the Dianetic
treatment should have been included in the sample).
With the exception of his one article on Dianetics published in a
science fiction magazine, a cursory examination of Hubbard's other
stories shows no indication that his imagination was being applied to
the science rather than the fiction. (The one exception is a story
written in 1938 called "Her Majesty's Aberration"{12} but it appears
that only the title presaged anything that was to come later.)
Another thing that Hubbard was doing at the time -- also apparently not
conducive to Dianetics research, and also an item he failed to mention
in his "autobiographies" -- was that he was possibly practicing black
magic. {13} Alexander Mitchell, who writes for the Sunday Times in
England, claimed that Hubbard was once practicing witchcraft with John
Parsons, who joined the American branch of the cult of Aleister Crowley,
the reknowned sorcerer and mystic.
Parsons got Hubbard to act as a high priest during a number of rituals,
during which time Parsons had sexual relations with his girl friend,
Betty, who was also allegedly having relations with Hubbard. Hubbard
seemed unconcerned about the competition, though, since Mitchell wrote
that in the "climax" of the ritual, he allegedly "worked" his two
subjects into a "sexual frenzy."
In addition to these sexual unions, there seems to have been some
pooling of finances on a business partnership. Parsons was believed to
have invested $17,000, Hubbard about $10,000, and Parson's girl friend
Betty nothing. But it was said that Hubbard used about $10,000 of this
to buy a yacht, while his friend Parsons was "living at rock bottom and
I mean rock bottom," according to another cult member. Aleister Crowley
cabled his United States office that he "suspected" that Hubbard was
playing a "confidence trick" since Parsons had given away his girl
friend and his money to Hubbard.
Eventually Parsons did recover the yacht, describing how in a letter to
Crowley, reprinted by the Sunday Times.
Hubbard attempted to escape me by
sailing at 5 P.M. and performed a full invocation to Bartzabel within
the circle at 8 P.M. (a curse). At the same time, however, his ship was
struck by a sudden squall off the coast which ripped off his sails and
forced him back to port where I took the boat in custody.
All this happened
after the war, at approximately the time when Hubbard claimed he had
resumed his studies of Dianetics.
In his biographies Hubbard conveniently omitted or altered his
educational qualifications. In his Brief Biography, he said he had
graduated from Columbian University and in Who's Who in the Southwest
(they claim he supplied the data) he said he graduated in Civil
Engineering from George Washington University. (He has sometimes used a
C.E. after his name.) Hubbard has even dedicated one of his books to his
"instructors in atomic and molecular phenomenon, mathematics and the
humanities at George Washington University and at Princeton,"{14} and in
his Brief Biography he said he "excelled in but thoroughly detested his
subjects."{15}
Actually his grades were appallingly low.{16} Although he did do well in
his engineering and English courses, the man who frequently calls
himself a nuclear physicist got a D in one physics course, an E in
another, and in the atomic and molecular physics courses that he most
often emphasizes (to the degree of thanking his instructors for it), he
received an F.{17} With those grades, along with similar ones in
mathematics, it is not surprising that Hubbard was placed on probation
after his first year in college and didn't return for his second -- and
of course never received the degrees that he claims he has.{18}
As for the Princeton School of Government that he says he attended, it
was the Princeton School of Military Government,{19} and he went there
only three months in what was possibly a war service course.{20}
Hubbard also claims to have a Ph.D. from Sequoia University.{21} Sequoia
was originally called the College of Drugless Healing, and might have
been called the College of Instant Learning, since it has been traced by
the United States government to a residential dwelling in Los Angeles
which operated through a post office box and delivered mail order
doctorates without the formality of exams, or for that matter, of
classroom attendance.
In fact, Hubbard didn't even have to pay for that degree -- it was an
Honorary Degree{22} for his work in Dianetics. A Harvard student
discovered that Hubbard was also on the staff of the school; might
Sequoia be another name for one of Hubbard's own establishments?{23}
(Hubbard's establishments have variously been called Hubbard College,
Hubbard International School for Children, The Apostolic Church of
Theological Scientologists, The Academy of Religious Arts and Sciences,
Church of American Science, Church of the New Faith, Scientology
Consultants for Industrial Efficiency, National Academy for American
Psychology.{24})
Nonetheless, Hubbard apparently considered this "doctorate" to be
significant because he renounced it in a public notice:
I, L. Ron Hubbard of Saint Hill
Manor East Grinstead Sussex having reviewed the damage being done in our
society with nuclear physics and psychiatry by persons calling
themselves "Doctors" do hereby resign in protest my university degree as
a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) anticipating an early public outcry
against anyone called "Doctor" and although not in any way connected
with bombs or "psychiatric treatment" or treatment of such and
interested only and always in philosophy and the total freedom of the
human spirit, I wish no association of any kind with these persons and
so do publicly declare and request my friends and the public not to
refer to me in any way with this title.{25}
Even so, Hubbard
is referred to as "doctor," has used the title himself, and he does
indeed have a D. Scn., or Doctor of Scientology. But that even this
degree is haphazardly awarded became apparent when Hubbard's son, L. Ron
Hubbard Jr., who also has a D. Scn, testified at the United States Court
of Claims that he didn't have to do anything special to get the degree,
and in fact, wasn't certain whether he got his Bachelor of Scientology
before or after he got his Doctorate of Scientology.{26}
Another omission in his biographies -- and one can hardly blame him for
it -- are the dates of his various marriages and divorces. In the
Scientology Security Check, a preclear is asked whether he has ever
committed bigamy. Perhaps Hubbard should have put himself on the meter.
On April 13, 1933, he married Louise Grubb at Elkton, Maryland, and had
two children by her. In December of 1945, she claimed he abandoned her
and the children, and she filed suit for divorce on April 14, 1947. The
divorce was granted on December 24, 1947, in Port Orchard, Washington.
The only problem is that on August 10, 1946, in Chestertown, Maryland,
Hubbard married Sara Northrup 8 months before the divorce suit was
filed, and a year and a half before it was finalized.{27}
Also omitted, obviously, are the speculations that have been made about
his sanity. The Australian Report said that "expert psychiatric
witnesses" were of the opinion that Hubbard's writings indicated
"symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia of long standing with delusions of
grandeur."{28} There have been rumors for years about Hubbard's sanity,
and he has acknowledged these rumors:
Two million traceable dollars were
spent to halt this work [Dianetics and Scientology].... All that has
survived of this attack by the two A.P.A.'s, the A.M.A. and several
universities is a clutter of rumors concerning your sanity and mine --
and rumors no longer financed will some day die.{29}
The Australian
Inquiry finally came to the conclusion that Hubbard's "sanity was to be
gravely doubted."{30} Certainly some of Hubbard's statements, even
coming from a former science fiction writer, do sound rather strange.
Hubbard claims to have visited Venus, the Van Allen Radiation belt,{31}
and heaven -- twice. The first time in heaven, he said, was from "the
moment of the implant to forget ... 43,891,832,611,177 years 344 days,
10 hours, 20 minutes and 40 seconds from 10:02 to 2 P.M. Daylight
Greenwich Time, May 9, 1963."{32} The second time was about a trillion
years later. Lest anyone doubt he was there, or think that he might have
ended up in the wrong place, he described Heaven as follows:
The gates of the first series are
well done, well built. An Avenue of statues of saints leads up to them.
The gate pillars are surmounted by marble angels. The entering grounds
are very well kept, laid out like Bush Gardens in Pasadena, so often
seen in the movies.
The second series ... is shabby.
The vegetation is gone. The pillars are scruffy. The saints have
vanished. So have the angels. A sign on one (the left as you enter) says
"This is Heaven." The right one says "Hell."
In addition to
having visited Heaven, Hubbard has also rewritten Genesis.{33} "Before
the Beginning was a Cause and the entire purpose of the Cause was the
creation of effect," etc. He has also rewritten the calendar{34} to read
"A.D. 1, A.D. 10," etc., (to stand for "After Dianetics 1951," "After
Dianetics 1960"), as if his discoveries were as important as the birth
of Christ. When Hubbard first came out with Dianetics he wrote that it
was a "milestone for Man comparable to his discovery of fire and
superior to his invention of the wheel and arch."{35} Now he sees
Scientology as purer than Buddhism, Taoism and Christianity.{36}
Hubbard's "case studies" contain a constant repetition of torture themes
in which people are held in bondage, inflicted with pain or violently
killed. He often attributes (or projects) the cause of neurosis or
engrams to the father's committing violent physical acts against the
mother while she was pregnant or in the act of conceiving, as in the
following "case study" Hubbard presented.
Fight between mother and father
shortly after conception. Father strikes mother in the stomach. She
screams ... and he says "Goddamn you, I hate you! You are no good. I'm
going to kill you." Mother says, "Please don't hit me again. Please
don't. I'm hurt. I'm frantic with pain." Father says, "Lie there and
rot, damn you, good-bye."{37}
An even more
violent example which one of his research subjects allegedly remembered,
occurred when the child in the womb got an engram when her father knelt
on her mother and started choking her before raping her.
FATHER: Stay here! Stay down, damn
you, you bitch! I'm going to kill you this time. I said I would and I
will. Take that! (his knee grinds into the mother's abdomen) You better
start screaming. Go on, Scream for mercy! Why don't you break down?
Don't worry, you will. You'll be blubbering around here, screaming for
mercy! The louder you scream the worse you'll get. That's what I want to
hear! I'm a punk kid, am I? You're the punk kid! I could finish you now
but I'm not going to! ... This is just a sample. There's a lot more than
that where it came from! I hope it hurts! I hope it makes you cry! You
say a word to anybody and I'll kill you in earnest! ... I'm going to
bust your face in. You don't know what it is to be hurt! ... I know what
I'm going to do to you now! I'm going to punish you! etc.
Hubbard's
hostility and unconscious obsession with violence runs through all of
his writings. But it was apparent even before he presented Dianetics or
Scientology. One of his earlier pseudonyms was "Winchester Remington
Colt" {38} and although it's possible he consciously chose the name for
its euphony it does seem strange that all three names are those of guns.
Freudians could have a field day with this pseudonym, and its obvious
phallic counterpart, perhaps surmising that he unconsciously chose the
name to compensate for other weaknesses.
_______________
Notes:
{1} first quote [284]
{2} biographical details [132]
{3} Count de Loup [53]
{4} all details [23]
{5} (7) Explorers Club [271]
{6} (5) Hubbard wrote it [255]
{7} (6) exposing things in Daily Mail [171]
{8} 270 cases [6]
{9} 35 years researching [23, 59]
{10} 12 years researching [23]
{11} 78 Sci Fi stories and names [130]
{12} Her Majesty's aberration [107]
{13} black magic story & quote [240a]
{14} (16) book dedication [1]
{15} (17) excelled in subject [13]
{16} (14) said George Wash. U. [132]
{17} (18) Hubbard's grades [255]
{18} (19) Hubbard not completing school [261, 267, 255]
{19} (20) Princeton Military [268a]
{20} (15) Princeton [171]
{21} Sequoia [142, 277]
{22} honorary degree [223]
{23} Sequoia might be Hubbard school [28]
{24} names of Hubbard schools [33, 261, 262, 266, 279]
{25} calls himself Doctor [261]
{26} L. R. H., Jr. degrees [255]
{27} divorce suit [148]
{28} delusions of grandeur [261]
{29} Hubbard acknowledged insanity rumors [16]
{30} sanity to be gravely doubted [261]
{31} visited Venus; Van Allen [261]
{32} visit to Heaven and quote [92]
{33} rewritten Genesis [11, 58]
{34} Rewritten calendar [261, 278]
{35} Dianetics is milestone [6]
{36} Scientology is purer than Christianity [16]
{37} (39) 2 quotes on fights between parents [6]
{38} (40) Winchester Remington Colt [140]
Extraneous citation notes:
{39} (37) Scientologist is better than God [101]
{40} (38) paranoid schiz [26, 1 {probably 261}]
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