Scientology

I. Introduction

In this article we will be examining the cult of Scientology, also known as the Church of Scientology, it’s roots and beliefs, and the life of its founder, L. Ron Hubbard. The material for this article comes from two of my university textbooks, Practical Systematic Theology and Religion: History and Mystery.

At a time when evolution theory was rampant, and Christianity ducking its head from a preudo-scientific onslaught, onto the stage came a man who became for many a messiah figure, and for others, a fraud of immense proportions. Like most cults, Scientologists deny any negative claims about their founder, in this case Ron Hubbard, and portray him as a brilliant man, a kind of prophet and messiah with high moral values and insights. So what is the truth about Hubbard?

II. Before Scientology

L. Ron Hubbard was born on March 13, 1911, and has had screeds written about him and the religion he founded. Some would disagree with calling the Church of Scientology a religion, but it is exactly that in the true sense of the word, in that it claims to provide people with answers to life, promotes its founder as a kind of savior figure, gives people a cause to believe in, and a promise for the future.

Hubbard's followers have tried to portray him as a 'child prodigy' of sorts - a boy with wealthy relatives who could ride a horse before he could walk and knew exactly what he wanted by the time he was three. Such claims are necessary for an organization that wishes to portray their savior as a Deli Lama figure - reincarnated to give the world the knowledge necessary to save it from destruction.

The truth is that Hubbard was quite an ordinary child and underachiever, although some members of the church will insist that everything negative written about Hubbard is a fabrication of the CIA or other US government organizations. Hubbard’s father was a low ranking naval officer so the family moved around quite a lot. As a teen, Hubbard, a keen writer, was dropped from the school newspaper because of his failing grades. Hubbard was sent to Woodward School as graduates of the school could enter George Washington University without having to take an entrance exam. Although his disciples claim he was something of a pioneer in nuclear physics, he actually attained a failed grade in the subject. 

Hubbard married his first wife in 1933 and the couple lived on his writing for pulp fiction magazines. In 1938 Hubbard claimed that he had a revelatory near death experience due to a reaction to anesthetic during a dental procedure. This experience prompted him to write the ‘Excalibur’ manuscript which was a precursor to his most popular book, ‘Dianetics’. Hubbard sent the manuscript of Excalibur to several publishers, but it was rejected, even though he claimed it was more significant than the Bible.  According to his literal agent at the time, Forrest Ackerman, the manuscript claimed to give the reader the power to; 

"rape women without their knowing it, communicate suicide messages to your enemies as they sleep, sell the Arroyo Seco Parkway to the mayor for cash, evolve the best way of protecting or destroying communism, and other handy house hold hints,"

Hubbard also claimed that:

 "four of the first fifteen people who read it went insane".

 Gardner, Martin (1986). Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science. Dover. p. 273.

Excalibur, according to Scientologists, was then locked away, only to be revealed to the religion’s elite after Hubbard's death.

A term in the Navy saw him relieved of command after carrying out gunning practice on an island he thought was uninhabited; the locals didn't appreciate it. After the war, Hubbard declined to return to his wife and children and moved into a mansion with the occultist and 'magician' Alistair Crowley, living on his veteran’s pension which he had tried on various occasions to have increased citing mental issues and suicidal tendencies. In one such letter to the Veteran’s Association, on October 15, 1947, requesting psychiatric treatment. He wrote,

“After trying and failing for two years to regain my equilibrium in civil life, I am utterly unable to approach anything like my own competence. My last physician informed me that it might be very helpful if I were to be examined and perhaps treated psychiatrically or even by a psychoanalyst. Toward the end of my service I avoided out of pride any mental examinations, hoping that time would balance a mind which I had every reason to suppose was seriously affected. I cannot account for nor rise above long periods of moroseness and suicidal inclinations, and have newly come to realize that I must first triumph above this before I can hope to rehabilitate myself at all. ... I cannot, myself, afford such treatment. Would you please help me?”

 (Letter to Veteran’s Association, October 15, 1947)

After participating in sexual occult activities, contacting his 'guardian angel' by the name of ‘diana’, and sharing Crowley's lover (Sara Northrup), the two fell out and Hubbard moved on. In 1946 Hubbard committed bigamy when he married Sara while still married to his children's mother. Sara Northrup was deeply involved in occult practices and, as Hubbard’s wife, was the main contributor to the book Dianetics. He was also arrested for petty theft in 1948 and ordered to pay a fine. 

Hubbard eventually divorced his first wife and stayed with the second, living in a mobile home, receiving a veteran's pension, and making money from writing. He and Sara worked on what became the founding document of Scientology – Dianetics, a name likely associated with his guardian angel Diana. This work claims that past experiences are recorded in the reactive mind as 'ingrams' and surface later to cause problems. Through a technique called 'auditing', these ingrams can be dealt with and the person 'cleared' of their effects. Once all traumas have been removed, the person is claimed to be 'clear' - to have an increased IQ and photographic memory.

The book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health was published on May 9, 1950 and became an immediate success leading to around 150 ‘auditing centers’ being set up around the US. Hubbard gave public seminars on Dianetics and claimed that after undergoing ‘dianetic therapy’ a woman called Sonya Bianca had achieved perfect memory recall. He introduced the woman in front of a crowd of 6000 at the Shrine Audatorium on August 10, but she could not recall the color of his tie. Half the audience walked out. 

In the same year Hubbard had an affair with Barbara Klowden, an employee. His wife Sarah started an affair also, and she and her lover tried to have Hubbard declared mentally insane. Hubbard, with supporters, kidnapped Sarah and their one year old daughter and tried to get a doctor to declare Sarah insane. 

He let Sarah go but took the child to Cuba. Sarah eventually got her daughter returned, but only after agreeing to sign a statement written by Hubbard which declared that the press had misrepresented her and that Hubbard was a ‘fine and brilliant man’.

III. Scientology: It’s Creation, Doctrines and Practices.

With the failure of dianetics therapy, Hubbard created Scientology. Dianetics therapy had promised people could become ‘clear’ of ingrams, but scientology promised supernatural powers as an ‘operating thetan’, a term we will explain shortly.

From a public perspective, Scientology offers educational programs which have, no doubt, helped many people who have suffered from under-confidence at school. These programs build the person’s self-esteem by helping them identify areas which have held them back. Scientology also offers programs to people addicted to drugs and criminal behavior, and, to all intents and purposes, the religion appears on the surface to be a wholesome organization aiming to improve the planet, and many could testify that the ‘church’ has improved their lives.

However, when one looks a little deeper, it is pretty obvious that these programs, although possibly well-intentioned, are more likely simply the public face of an organization which has a much more spiritual and egotistical agenda firmly rooted in the occult. For the mere beginner, any improvement in their self-esteem which leads to a better life can breed confidence and gratitude, making them ripe for the next levels, provided they have enough money. Getting to the ‘clear’ stage is expensive if, indeed, anyone ever gets there at all. 

Participants undergo ‘auditing sessions’, each session costing around $800 per hour and reaching ‘clear’ stage can cost in excess of $120,000. Auditors use an 'e-meter', a crude form of lie-detector in which a person grasps two cans, this device presumably measures electrical impulses. Questions are asked of the person being audited and responses considered a reaction to previous traumas from their present and former lives.

The costs are called ‘donations’, in order to give them tax-free religious status,, and participants move up through the various levels through auditing - whilst auditing those on the lower levels - along what is called the ‘Bridge to Total Freedom’ or just ‘bridge’ in Scientology jargon. 

As one goes higher, the cost goes up and the teachings become more and more esoteric. After one becomes ‘clear’, he/she can begin the OT (operating thetan) levels. One is told that he/she is essentially a ‘thetan’, a word close to the Platonic idea of a soul. Thetans are immortal and, at some time in the very distant past, we thetans created worlds and universes for our own pleasure.

We were (and can become again) beings of immense power - a power we previously abused and consequently ended up as we are now, trying desperately to get back to where we were before. Sound familiar? We were gods, we are still gods, albeit fallen, but we are basically good and can be gods again. Hinduism and Buddhism, with a little sci-fi thrown in for good measure - actually, a whole lot more than just a little sci-fi.

What do you do as a cult leader when everyone is supposedly catching up to you in terms of levels of knowledge? Simple! Create higher levels - levels which only you have reached.

Onto the Scientology scene came the 'wall of fire'. Some 75 million years ago, the dictator of a galactic confederacy called Xenu brought billions of people to earth, stacked them around volcanoes, and blasted them with hydrogen bombs. Their souls were then captured and were forced to watch movies which implanted false information into them such as God, the devil, world religions, and anything else which basically contradicts Scientology dogma. These thetans have been adversely affecting humanity ever since, and auditing is necessary to eliminate this traumatic past. 

Hubbard claimed that he was the first to discover this secret knowledge, and the first to deal with the 'wall of fire' - coming through the incident with several broken bones. Critics claim that he admitted in a letter to using drugs and alcohol at the time - a claim not difficult to believe. According to Hubbard, Xenu used spaceships which looked exactly like a DC8 aircraft, but without engines; the people wore clothes very similar to westerners at the time of writing, and deployed hydrogen bombs, etc. One would think that a man with such a rich imagination could have come up with something a little more original.

IV. Dangerous or Just Deluded?

Hubbard’s claims led him into conflict with several government institutions from various countries. His initial claim regarding dianetic therapy borrowed Freud’s assertion that past trauma could affect a person’s health which may be treated by releasing suppressed memories, that which Hubbard labeled ‘engrams’. Hubbard took this developing psychology and made grandiose claims that most diseases were psychosomatic, therefore dianetics therapy could cure ulcers, arthritis, dermatitis, migraines, allergies, asthma, heart problems, etc. Prior to the release of Dianetics, Hubbard claimed to have completely cured a thousand patients.

Believing Hubbard was offering a new and guaranteed cure for all ailments, thousands were convinced to hand over large sums and 150 centers were established. Hubbard’s claims were firstly met with skepticism from the scientific and medical community, and when proven false, considered a fraud which had relieved thousands of gullible and hopeful people of their hard-earned money.

Dianetics became Scientology, and Hubbard turned his money making scam into a religion. In this way, Hubbard could redefine his claims to be religious doctrine, beliefs and practices, and therefore, beyond the norms of government regulations. He set out to write books attacking psychiatrists and anyone else who opposed him, creating grandiose conspiracy theories which united members against a common enemy.

In 1958 the Internal Revenue Service withdrew Scientology’s tax exemption status claiming that Hubbard was profiting unreasonable from the ‘church’, his annual income being the equivalent of around 3 million in 2025. In 1963 the US Food and Drug Administration raided Scientology offices and seized e-meters, records, pills claiming to cure cancer, etc. In the same year the Australian government launched an enquiry accusing the church of brainwashing, blackmail, extortion and damaging the mental health of its members.

Hubbard’s legal battles in various countries saw him purchasing ships and establishing the Sea Org. This move enabled him to continue receiving a huge income from the church whilst keeping himself beyond the reach of various governments.

V. Critique

It is difficult to believe that people can be gullible enough to buy into this stuff; however, after one has spent so much it can be even more difficult to get out. By the time of reaching the 'wall of fire' levels, Scientologists have spent tens of thousands of dollars, indeed, sometimes even hundreds of thousands. Furthermore, some celebrities such as Tom Cruise actively support Scientology, with Cruise reportedly donating around 25 million. 

Scientology has all the classic ingredients for the desperate seeker of self-development. The initial stages help the self-esteem; the initiate begins to feel he/she is part of an exclusive club and, as time goes by, he learns that he/she is/was a god of almost unlimited power who is changing the world and saving humanity. If you want to deceive people, just massage their egos and dangle a carrot called secret knowledge or mysticism. However, I wonder if far less would get involved if people knew exactly what Scientology teaches before they began.

L. Ron Hubbard. Some consider him as a messiah figure and others as a hypocritical madman. Perhaps a choice is not necessary. Scientology claims to uphold moral values, to honor marriage, to help those caught up in drug addiction and give answers to life.  Hubbard’s descent into the occult, his adulteress relationship with Crowley’s lover, his bigamy, alcohol and drug abuse, testify to a man who practiced ‘do as I say, not as I do’. 

Scientology could be described as a pseudo-scientific New Age religion. Its fundamental thesis is that of early Hinduism - that Atman (Thetan) and Braham (God) are one. The science fiction aspects are generally kept quiet; in fact, many scientologists may even deny them. Scientology panders to the ego of its participants, has just enough occult mystery to make it a curiosity, and enough social education programs to make it socially acceptable.

Hubbard’s son ‘Nibs’ stated that the occultist Alister Crowley was his father’s greatest influence and in an interview in 1983 that:

“What a lot of people don't realize is that Scientology is black magic that is just spread out over a long time period. To perform black magic generally takes a few hours or, at most, a few weeks. But in Scientology it's stretched out over a lifetime, and so you don't see it.”

Both Hubbard and Crowley spoke of a personal goddess figure they called Babalon or Diana. This goddess was associated with the sex magic ritual called both ‘karezza’ or ‘dianism’. Interestingly, Hubbard called one of his Sea Org ships ‘diana’, and one of his daughters, and many believe this personal goddess was the inspiration for his book ‘dianetics’.

Both Crowley and Hubbard were dedicated admirers of Helena Blavatsky, the Ukrainian occultist and Satanist. After Blavatsky’s disciples produced the work entitled ‘The Bridge to Freedom’, Hubbard announced his ‘The Bridge to Total Freedom’, a chart outlining the dozens of levels Scientologists move through to level 15 as an operating thetan. 

L. Ron Hubbard was a pathological liar and con-man. There is no doubt that many would claim that the educational programs, which allure people into the ‘church’ have helped them. Scientology offers a carrot and promises the universe, and people desperate to find meaning in life, are seduced by the ego-centric notion that they can become gods. In truth, one of Hubbard’s sons considered his father an occultist and satanist, whilst another son committed suicide.

After his death in 1986, a week after suffering a stroke, the ‘Church of Scientology’ claimed that he had purposely ‘dropped his body’ in order to continue his research, an unintentional admission that the cult leader had never achieved any of his claims in his own life-time.

I pray this article/video has been informative. Please share it with anyone you know who may be involved in Scientology, or considering joining this cult. The video series on World Religions and Cults can be viewed from my YouTube channel @stevecopland6001.

Steve Copland