L. Ron Hubbard

L.Ron Hubbard (1911-1986), born Lafayette Ronald Hubbard, was a science fiction writer and the inventor of Scientology.

Screenshot of a Google Image search for L. Ron Hubbard

Hubbard promoted his philosophy in his book, Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health.

A fantasist, Hubbard lied about his past and his accomplishments.

Nevertheless, while Scientologists do not ‘worship’ Hubbard, they hold him in high regard. His written and recorded spoken words on the subject of Scientology collectively constitute Scientology’s scripture.

In order to protect his works, the Church has built a huge vault into the side of a mountain in New Mexico. The vault includes Hubbard’s writings on engraved on stainless steel tablets, which are encased in titanium capsules.

The Church of Scientology has a lengthy and ongoing record of hate- and harassment activities — behavior based on the unethical ideas promoted and condone by Hubbard (e.g. Dead Agenting and Fair Game).

Many independent Scientologists — who practice Scientology outside (and without the blessings) of the Church of Scientology — admire Hubbard, while denouncing the present-day Church, which they feel have hijacked and twisted his teachings.

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Articles

• A biography of L. Ron Hubbard [Contra] Documents many of Hubbard’s lies
• A Hubbard Legacy: Scientology’s Punitive Policies [Contra] by Watchman Fellowship
• Hubbard’s Religion [Contra], by Craig Branch, Watchman Fellowship
  

  Scientology’s founder L. Ron Hubbard’s writings and lectures (tapes) are considered to be infallible Scripture. He is known as the exclusive “Source” of the only truth to lead man to total spiritual freedom.

• The Ultimate Spin Doctor: L. Ron Hubbard – The Man and His Myth [Contra] by Craig Branch, Watchman Fellowship
  

  An honest examination of Hubbard uncovers a life of fantasy, fraud, lies, relentless pursuit of money and power, and apparent paranoia that parallels the history, beliefs, and practices of his Scientology organization.

• L. Ron Hubbard: His Struggle With Truth Chapter 2 of Ron the “War Hero” [Contra] Deconstructs Hubbard’s life story.
• L. Ron Hubbard leaves the navy [Contra] by Lawrence Wright, in a sidebar to The Apostate — Wright’s New Yorker profile of Scientology defector Paul Haggis.
  

  In my Profile of Paul Haggis, I look into questions about the military record of L. Ron Hubbard, who served in the Navy during the Second World War. Hubbard wrote that he had been injured in battle and had healed himself, using techniques that became the foundation of Scientology. But Hubbard’s complete military record in the National Archives in St. Louis, a file that is more than nine hundred pages long, contains no mention of Hubbard’s being wounded in battle.

• Scientology founder: What a nut [Contra] 1963 memo summarizing FBI file information on Hubbard, which shows something on Hubbard’s state of mind
• Scientology Founder’s Family Life Far From What He Preached Don Lattin, San Francisco Chronicle, Feb. 12, 2001

Books

• Bare-faced Messiah [Contra] [Kindle] Considered by many Scientology experts to be the best and most comprehensive biography of L. Ron Hubbard. Published in 1988, and re-published in 2014.
  
• Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health by L. Ron Hubbard. Junk science, pseudoscience and other flotsam.

  In 1965, The Anderson Report ² — “the colloquial name of the report of the Board of Inquiry into Scientology, an official inquiry into the Church of Scientology conducted for the State of Victoria, Australia” — concluded in part:

  (a) The claim is made for dianetics, which is part of scientology, and inferentially for the whole of scientology, that between them they can positively cure all psychosomatic ailments, which it is claimed represent 70 per cent. of man’s illnesses.

  (b) These claims are entirely unjustified.

  (c) On the contrary, scientology techniques, beyond the elementary stages, are potentially and, in some instances, positively harmful to mental health.

  (d) Scientology is practised by “auditors” who have no medical training; they use dangerous techniques; they are unable to recognize symptoms and diagnose particular mental and physical
  conditions of ill health; they indiscriminately apply dangerous techniques irrespective of the circumstances; they not only administer the wrong treatment, but also poison their patients’ minds
  against orthodox medicine and thus prevent them from obtaining proper medical treatment which they may require.
  – Source: The Anderson Report, Chapter 30, point 8

• L. Ron Hubbard, Messiah or Madman? [Contra] by Bent Corydon, author, journalist, and former Scientologist
• Let’s sell these people A Piece of Blue Sky: Hubbard, Dianetics and Scientology [Contra] [Kindle] by former British Scientologist Jon Atack. First published in 1990. Republished in February, 2014. One of the best book on Scientology, described by Lawrence Wright as the “unexpurgated, unabridged version of the classic history of L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology. Exposing Hubbard’s false claims to be a war hero, a nuclear physicist, an explorer and a protégé of Eastern gurus, and showing the true malevolence of Scientology.”

Discuss

• Operation Clambake’s discussion forum Part of Operation Clambake (Xenu.net), and extensive and very informative counter-Scientology site

Encyclopedia

• L. Ron Hubbard [Neutral] Wikipedia

Quotes

• The Hubbard Quotes collection [Contra] Audio clips plus transcripts.
• Scientology Soundbytes [Contra] Another collection of audio clips and their transcripts

See Also

» Scientology

Websites

• Documents of a lifetime [Contra] “The L. Ron Hubbard Papers”
  

  This site contains copies of a number of publicly-available documents about Hubbard. The items listed below all come from public sources in the US. Most were obtained through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA); some come from the still-sealed exhibits of the 1984 case Church of Scientology of California vs Gerald ArmstrongOff-site Link (but were obtained legally, both here in Europe and in the US). They present a rather different picture of Hubbard, showing him to have a much darker side than is officially admitted by Scientology.

• The H-Files [Contra]
  

  [A]n archive of documents from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation relating to L. Ron Hubbard and the Dianetics and Scientology movements which he founded

• LRonHubbard.org [Pro] Caution! Operated by the Church of Scientology. Perpetuates the fictional accounts created by and around L. Ron Hubbard.
• Scientology vs. Armstrong Gerry Armstrong is a former Scientologist who had become on of the cult’s most active critics. As a Scientologist Amstrong, as Hubbard’s personal secretary of was assigned to organize some of Hubbard’s personal papers that were to serve as the basis of a new biography. In the process, he discovered information that made him doubt — and reject as lies — the claims made by and about L. Ron Hubbard. Armstrong has been relentlessly harassed by the Church of Scientology.