Imperial Domains
01-07-2006, 13:54
Lafayette Ronald Hubbard is a person who, throughout his life and even after, is viewed in different lights by many different people. The Church of Scientology view this man to be the saviour or prophet of the modern age, giving a meaning and purpose to many lives (they call him “The Friend of Mankind”). However, others look beneath the charismatic face and perceive a man driven by greed, lust for power and in general a con-artist. Despite several inaccuracies the Church promotes in Hubbard’s life, there are still agreements on many of the fundamental facts which took place.
L. Ron Hubbard was born to Harry Ross Hubbard and Ledora May Hubbard in 1911, Tilden, Nebraska. At an early age he became an Eagle Scout, and Hubbard himself later proclaimed that he was the youngest Eagle Scout in America, a claim that although held to be truth in the Church of Scientology, remains unfounded.
His Father joined the US Navy in 1904, delisted in 1908, then re-enlisted when the US declared war on Germany. His mother was a strong feminist, who had trained to become a high-school teacher. At times she home-schooled Hubbard while he missed school on their trips to the far-east, where his father was posted at the US Navy base at Guam.
Contrary to the Scientologist’s view of Hubbard, his teenage years and life at University were rather unremarkable. Hubbard claimed that he graduated from George Washington University as a nuclear physicist, and obtained a PhD from Sequoia University. However, George Washington university records indicate he attended for only two years, was on academic probation, failed in physics, and then dropped out in 1931 – and it was uncovered that the latter Californian university was exposed as a mail-order diploma mill.
When his academic career failed him Hubbard later pursued writing, most notably science fiction and fantasy stories throughout the next decade. Several books he wrote during this time placed him on many best-seller lists, including ‘Final Blackout’ and ‘Fear’. In a manuscript entitled ‘Excalibur’, there were many idea and concepts that seem to show up later in Hubbard’s teachings of Scientology.
In 1941, L. Ron Hubbard joined the United States Navy as a lieutenant junior, and was posted to Australia in December. However, he soon returned to the US, after quarrelling with the Navy command. This happened several times, with Hubbard receiving reports such as, “Unsatisfactory for any assignment” or “not temperamentally fitted for independent command”. Again, this clashes with the typical Scientologist literature, hailing Hubbard as a hero of the war and a brave, strong figure of the Navy. Years after he was discharged from the navy in late 1945, Hubbard made several extraordinary claims about his wartime service. He was certain he had sustained combat wounds on the island of Java – however, there are no records of Hubbard ever being there, nor even being posted near there. Another claim is his 21 medals and awards. The Church of Scientology ‘reinforced’ Hubbard’s claims when they circulated a copy of his notice of separation (DD214), complete with a list of medals he had received during his service in the navy. The US navy’s copy of the form numbered DD214 is very different. Not only are half of the medals nonexistent, but the Scientologists version is signed by a nonexistent Lt. Cmdr Howard D. Thompson. When the Navy was queried in regards to the discrepancies, a spokesperson stated, “several inconsistencies exist between Mr. Hubbard's [purported] DD214 and the available facts.”
After he left the Navy, it should be noted that Hubbard took disability pay for arthritis, bursitis, and conjunctivitis. In the late 1940’s, Hubbard tried to find a mainstream publisher or medical professional to publish his new self-improvement technique called Dianetics, which introduces the concept of ‘auditing’ – a two-person question-and-answer therapy that focused on painful memories. This was purported to cure physical illness, emotional problems and increase intelligence. However, he was unable to convince anyone that it was worth publishing, other than an old friend who used to publish his science fiction stories – John W. Campbell.
It was no wonder that the scientific community did not even want to think about publishing Hubbard’s Dianetics – many scorned it with scathing remarks such as “a lunatic revision of Freudian psychology ”and “ had the look of a wonderfully rewarding scam”(both by author Jack Williamson). The American Psychological Association in 1950 published a statement in the New York Times which follows- “the association calls attention to the fact that these claims are not supported by empirical evidence,” and continued on to warn against the use of Dianetics until further scientific studies had been completed. The next year, Consumer Reports assessed Dianetics, concluding that it was “the basis for a new cult”. This turned out to be truer than they would have imagined.
It was in 1952 when Hubbard expanded Dianetics from a therapy technique to a secular philosophy which he called Scientology. Then a year later he declared Scientology a religion. This new applied religious philosophy focuses on the rehabilitation of the human spirit, called a Thetan. One on one ‘auditing’ sessions could, over time, reduce the effects caused by harmful Thetans to a person’s emotional and physical state, and could reach an almost godhood level when realisation of ‘your true self or Thetan’ is achieved.
However the road to salvation is a long and expensive one for Church members, who are expected to pay fixed donation rates for auditing sessions, courses, books, equipment. This was all very lucrative for the Church, as most work was also voluntary. Emoluments were reportedly paid to the Hubbard family, but Ron Hubbard denied many times in writing that this was true.
It becomes clear that cross-analysing what the Church of Scientology and L. Ron Hubbard says about his life is quite different to official records and testimonies. Even the motives of Hubbard can come into question when he is quoted in Readers Digest from the 1940’s, “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.” It would become more so difficult to believe the claims of Hubbard when his own son, L. Ron Hubbard Jr. stated in 1983 “99% of what my father ever wrote or said about himself is totally untrue.”
meh, I know that there is another Scientology thread at the moment, but I'd rather see one that discusses the actual empirical facts a bit more....
[I]Go for your life
(and I don't care if the essay is too long, I wrote it for an assignment a few years ago, so meh)
L. Ron Hubbard was born to Harry Ross Hubbard and Ledora May Hubbard in 1911, Tilden, Nebraska. At an early age he became an Eagle Scout, and Hubbard himself later proclaimed that he was the youngest Eagle Scout in America, a claim that although held to be truth in the Church of Scientology, remains unfounded.
His Father joined the US Navy in 1904, delisted in 1908, then re-enlisted when the US declared war on Germany. His mother was a strong feminist, who had trained to become a high-school teacher. At times she home-schooled Hubbard while he missed school on their trips to the far-east, where his father was posted at the US Navy base at Guam.
Contrary to the Scientologist’s view of Hubbard, his teenage years and life at University were rather unremarkable. Hubbard claimed that he graduated from George Washington University as a nuclear physicist, and obtained a PhD from Sequoia University. However, George Washington university records indicate he attended for only two years, was on academic probation, failed in physics, and then dropped out in 1931 – and it was uncovered that the latter Californian university was exposed as a mail-order diploma mill.
When his academic career failed him Hubbard later pursued writing, most notably science fiction and fantasy stories throughout the next decade. Several books he wrote during this time placed him on many best-seller lists, including ‘Final Blackout’ and ‘Fear’. In a manuscript entitled ‘Excalibur’, there were many idea and concepts that seem to show up later in Hubbard’s teachings of Scientology.
In 1941, L. Ron Hubbard joined the United States Navy as a lieutenant junior, and was posted to Australia in December. However, he soon returned to the US, after quarrelling with the Navy command. This happened several times, with Hubbard receiving reports such as, “Unsatisfactory for any assignment” or “not temperamentally fitted for independent command”. Again, this clashes with the typical Scientologist literature, hailing Hubbard as a hero of the war and a brave, strong figure of the Navy. Years after he was discharged from the navy in late 1945, Hubbard made several extraordinary claims about his wartime service. He was certain he had sustained combat wounds on the island of Java – however, there are no records of Hubbard ever being there, nor even being posted near there. Another claim is his 21 medals and awards. The Church of Scientology ‘reinforced’ Hubbard’s claims when they circulated a copy of his notice of separation (DD214), complete with a list of medals he had received during his service in the navy. The US navy’s copy of the form numbered DD214 is very different. Not only are half of the medals nonexistent, but the Scientologists version is signed by a nonexistent Lt. Cmdr Howard D. Thompson. When the Navy was queried in regards to the discrepancies, a spokesperson stated, “several inconsistencies exist between Mr. Hubbard's [purported] DD214 and the available facts.”
After he left the Navy, it should be noted that Hubbard took disability pay for arthritis, bursitis, and conjunctivitis. In the late 1940’s, Hubbard tried to find a mainstream publisher or medical professional to publish his new self-improvement technique called Dianetics, which introduces the concept of ‘auditing’ – a two-person question-and-answer therapy that focused on painful memories. This was purported to cure physical illness, emotional problems and increase intelligence. However, he was unable to convince anyone that it was worth publishing, other than an old friend who used to publish his science fiction stories – John W. Campbell.
It was no wonder that the scientific community did not even want to think about publishing Hubbard’s Dianetics – many scorned it with scathing remarks such as “a lunatic revision of Freudian psychology ”and “ had the look of a wonderfully rewarding scam”(both by author Jack Williamson). The American Psychological Association in 1950 published a statement in the New York Times which follows- “the association calls attention to the fact that these claims are not supported by empirical evidence,” and continued on to warn against the use of Dianetics until further scientific studies had been completed. The next year, Consumer Reports assessed Dianetics, concluding that it was “the basis for a new cult”. This turned out to be truer than they would have imagined.
It was in 1952 when Hubbard expanded Dianetics from a therapy technique to a secular philosophy which he called Scientology. Then a year later he declared Scientology a religion. This new applied religious philosophy focuses on the rehabilitation of the human spirit, called a Thetan. One on one ‘auditing’ sessions could, over time, reduce the effects caused by harmful Thetans to a person’s emotional and physical state, and could reach an almost godhood level when realisation of ‘your true self or Thetan’ is achieved.
However the road to salvation is a long and expensive one for Church members, who are expected to pay fixed donation rates for auditing sessions, courses, books, equipment. This was all very lucrative for the Church, as most work was also voluntary. Emoluments were reportedly paid to the Hubbard family, but Ron Hubbard denied many times in writing that this was true.
It becomes clear that cross-analysing what the Church of Scientology and L. Ron Hubbard says about his life is quite different to official records and testimonies. Even the motives of Hubbard can come into question when he is quoted in Readers Digest from the 1940’s, “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.” It would become more so difficult to believe the claims of Hubbard when his own son, L. Ron Hubbard Jr. stated in 1983 “99% of what my father ever wrote or said about himself is totally untrue.”
meh, I know that there is another Scientology thread at the moment, but I'd rather see one that discusses the actual empirical facts a bit more....
[I]Go for your life
(and I don't care if the essay is too long, I wrote it for an assignment a few years ago, so meh)