BORDERLINE Volume 1 Number 2 1964

Is he a sage or a charlatan?

L. RON HUBBARD
AN OPINION
AND SUMMING UP
by Richard G. Sipes

LAFAYETTE RONALD HUuBBARD first made news in 1950 with Dianetics, an allegedly new theory of the human mind and behavior, and one which orthodox psycholo- gists and psychiatrists have refused to condone. He has been in the news periodically ever since. Most men of action receive mixed press; in his particular case a volatile per- sonality has caused the press to be more mixed than usual.

Red-headed, dramatic, mercurial, dogmatic, prolific of ideas, he is a difficult man to pin down. About the only thing one can be sure of is that he is thoroughly enjoying his controversial ride through life on the back of Scientology, his sec- ond and more durable creation.

This has given him an organization that girdles the globe and which responds instantly to his orders. It has led to a country house in Sus- sex, England. It has provided him with fame, fortune, power, and the responsibility of having affected tens of thousands of lives. But what sort of man is he? How much of what is said about him is true? How much myth? To what degree has the condemnation been justi- fied? And the adulation?

Hubbard was born in Tilden, Nebraska, March 13, 1911. His early years were spent on a ranch. Later, because his father was a career Navy man, he was shuttled from place to place. He spent sev- eral years as a boy in the Orient where he claims to have become familiar with Eastern religion and philosophy.

STUDIES WITH FREUD

Near the same time he also was supposed to have studied the theo- ries of Sigmund Freud under Com- mander "Snake" Thompson (MC) USN, a friend of the family who had been a student of Freud. Not- withstanding the interest in psy- chiatry presumably generated by this association, Hubbard enrolled in a pre-engineering curriculum at George Washington University in 1930. Contrary to his claim of hav- ing received a degree at this insti- tution, he left it while still an un- dergraduate. Neither did he receive a degree from Princeton, which he attended for a few semesters.

It was not until much later that he received a "Doctor of Philos- ophy" degree from Sequoia Uni- versity. This "university," which is not listed in directories of univer- sities, colleges, junior colleges, or trade schools, was located in a resi- dential type building in California. He has given himself a "Doctor of Divinity" degree in Scientology and a "Doctor of Scientology" de- gree from the Hubbard Institute. (In an effort to allay some controversy on this subject, I should like to point out that most of his critics will agree with him that one does not have to have a string of degrees to do good and valid work They are objecting to the fact that Hubbard says he has degrees he does not have. They claim lack of veracity. They also object to him claiming to be a nuclear physicist and engineer when there is no indication of his having been same).

Following in his father's foot- steps, he enlisted in the Navy dur- ing World War II and saw service in the Pacific. He gave a good ac- count of himself and was wounded in action. It is to this period that one of the myths concerning Hub- bard refer. He personally has claimed that he "dropped the body" - i.e., died - when wounded but "picked up the body" again and healed it in a manner the medicos found "unbelievable." The myth takes it from there.

BODY DEATH

His followers say it was during these moments of "body death" that he "cognited," or received the reve- lation, of all that he was later to teach. The myth goes on to state that he immediatelv wrote down this revelation in the form of a pamphlet entitled "Excalibur," the reading of which, since it is so far above the "acceptance level" of hu- mans, has driven many people in- sane. Other, more prosaic individ- uals, who claim to have read the pamphlet, say that it is a somewhat mystic tract similar to Spiritualist works on Cosmology and that it was written after the war while he was living at his parent's home in the Northwest.

Resolution of these conflicting versions seems unlikely, for the pamphlet has been made unavail- able and Hubbard no longer com- ments on it. There is one thing concerning his war service, though, that he will comment on- that is, his insistence that he was the naval officer who inspired the novel, Mister Roberts.

Moving away from the speculative, we do know that he entered the science-fiction field in the 40's, writing under the 'name of Lafay- ette, and that he was engaged in writing Hollywood screen scripts. Most of his science-fiction stories were published by John Campbell, Jr., editor of Astounding Science Fiction (now Analog - Science Fact and Science Fiction). Some of the more fascinating of his stor- ies belonged to the "Doc Methuse- lah" series. It is interesting to view these stories in light of Hubbard's later antipathy toward, and running battle with, the medical profession and the psychoIogic concept of re- bellion against the Father Figure.

The stories took place some time in the far future, after Mankind had spread and colonized many worlds and had almost forgotten about Terra. At that time there was an age-old medical society, au- tonomous, omnipotent, vague and shadowy, and treated with awe and obedience by most of the planetary governments. The Foundation train- ed M.D.'s who then worked on a sort of free-lance basis throughout the galaxy, saving planets from epidemics here, solving interplan- etary conflicts there, bringing jus- tice to the helpless elsewhere. These M.D.'s were supplied with unbe- lievably powerful, well-armed, and well-stocked spaceships and the M.D.'s themselves had been treated in some way to make them almost immortal. -

To back up these potent free- lancers was the threat that dire, unstated consequence would befall any people daring to harm a mem- ber of the Foundation. Doc Methu- selah was one of these M.D.'s He was accompanied -by a very prac- tical, non-human slave named Hippocrates who was forever extracting his more romantic master from peril. Hippocrates had many of the characteristics Hubbard later attributed to the "reactive mind" (the subconscious and the presumed source of all our difficulties) in that he was impervious to attack, had immense strength and a per- fect memory, and was very literal- minded. Doc, despite his rather ad- vanced age of about 500 years, swashed many a buckler and played the role of deus ex machine galaxy- wide through innumerable stories in Astounding. It is unascertain- able whether or not Doc Methuse- lah represented a literary wish-ful- fillment of Hubbard's, but he un- doubtedly did for any other red- blooded American boy who read the stories. The series was well- written and fast-paced. Without question the writing experience helped Hubbard with his later Di- anetics and Scientology books.

The series also paid off in an- other way. Campbell published some of Hubbard's first essays in Dianetics as articles in Astound- ing and generally supported him until Hubbard went off-planet with Scientology, at which point Camp- bell dropped him.

The publicity achieved through Astounding contributed to the fact that Dianetics. The Modern Science of Mental Health, immediately was in the best-seller category for sev- eral months. Dianetic "auditing" (treatment) at once became a na- tional, then international, fad Di- anetics essentially was an elabora- tion and extrapolation of Alfred Korzybski's theory of the origin of neuroses (Science and Sanity. International Non-Aristotelian Li- brary Publishing Co., Lakeville, Conn. 1933), coupled with a ther- apy derived from regression (or re-living) therapy practiced by some psychoanalysts. The results of this "do-it-yourself" fad justified the assertion by behavioral scientists that it takes more than reading and resolve to produce an analyst.

Hubbard utilized the popularity of his book to set up what he called the Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation in California. This organization blossomed and the num- ber of students and "preclears" (patients), plus book royalties, probably formed the original basis of Hubbard's present fortune. The public fad rapidly ran aground and difficulties precipitated a move of the Foundation to Wichita, Kansas.

In Kansas, his second major pub- lication was released, Science of Survival (HASI International, Lon- don, 1951) but it never attained

anywhere near the popularity of his first book (nor have any of his works since). It also was in Kan- sas that the organization was taken out of Hubbard's control by its Board of Directors, who presumably did not like the direction in which things were going. He claimed they were able to do this through a "sell- out" by his lawyer. Dr. Winters, an M.D. who previously had sup- ported Hubbard, was a member of this group of insurgents. Many fantastic stories are told of this period, including the one which as- serts that Winters shortly died be- cause of guilt feelings at having betrayed Hubbard and the one that Hubbard's ex-wife (he has since married his third one) ended up in an insane asylum somehow because she had attempted to get him com- mitted for observation. There is no known basis in fact for these stories.

The old organization's Board of Directors had underestimated Hub- bard's powers of persuasion, how- ever. Although they had the organ- ization, he had the people. He led most of the rank-and-file up out of Egyptland and into the wilderness of Phoenix, Arizona. But Hubbard also had learned a lesson and that was the last time anyone but him- self had any power in his organiza- tions. From that point on it was even more of a one-man show.

The new organization, however, did not really thrive in the wilder- ness of Phoenix and in 1955 local pressure and his still-expanding pic- ture of his destined role caused an- other exodus, this time to the na- tion's capitol. Several of the peo- ple who were with him at this time claimed that before he left he "cursed" Phoenix and prophesied that Scientology would never "save" the city from its insanity. It is doubtful that he ever really did this and Phoenix appears as sane as one could expect in this day and age. Hubbard registered his organ- ization in Washington as a church, as he had done in Phoenix. By this time Scientology generally had taken the form it has today. It also had spread as an organization into most English-speaking countries and by 1955 Ability, Scientol- ogy's monthly house-organ, also listed franchised auditors in over 13 non-English-speaking countries. This was the heyday of internation- al Scientology. Hubbard made the most of this wave but already there were signs that things were not all they might be.

First, although the production of "clears" (completely unaberrated individuals without a "reactive mind") was advertised left and right, Hubbard had been unable to produce anyone who even he was willing to classify as a "clear" who maintained this state for longer than a few days or weeks and even then the "clears" did not appear to possess all the predicted character- istics. Second, although (perhaps because) Hubbard controlled with an ever-tighter hand, more and more groups and individuals seem- ed to be leaving the organization and the ranks were considerably

thinner than they had been in the days of California ,and Kansas.

Despite the possibility that Hubbard may have overstated his technical successes around this time, nothing he could have said would have matched the flights of imagination taking place among his fol- lowers.

Innumerable myths are levied on the periods when he was in Washington and after he permanently moved his headquarters to England about four years ago.. It is difficult to attribute any truth whatsoever to them but they illus- trate the process by which legends are formed (and what, if Scientology were to endure as a religion, probably would become dogma in a few centuries). One day, so a story goes, a couple of students were standing in the dark hallway of the Academy of Scientology in Washington. A wizened. small broken-down figure sidled past. The student who had just arrived in Washington and had not seen Hubbard asked the other. "Who was that?" Didn't you re- cognize him? That was Hubbard.- A half-hour later a large, hefty, radiantlv healthy man bounded up to the -lectern in the lecture hall, slapped his thigh resoundingly and laughed. "Well, kids. I was audited on the new process about an hour ago. Dropped the body right there in session. Was exterior to it for almost am hour. Just picked it up again. The Genetic Entity was run- ning it there for a while. Here I am, though."

The Scientologist who related this to me was tolerant of my incredul- ity. But it seems that such things were not at all unusual on the premises. Unspecified, mysterious things were believed to happen to space and time in the furnace room of the Academy. These, worse luck, always seemed to have happened to someone other than my informants and details are unavailable as to just what sort of thing it was that happened.

Another story concerns the im- pressive bust of Hubbard encased in the student lecture hall. (Scien- tologists can get a photo of this bust for $1.50.) One day, during rearrangement of furniture, some- one moved the case to another part of the room. Within half an hour the teletype lines from England were blistered by an order from Hubbard: "Put that bust back ex- actly where you found it! At once'." My informant explained to me that the bust was one of Hubbard's "an- chor points" by which he orients himself in this particular universe and that the moving of it disor- iented him.

Another story comes out of Eng- land: Scientology theory apparent- ly proclaimed at one time that ex- tra-terrestrials had manned stations on Terra from which they "im- planted" aberrations and insanities in the minds of humans. These con- tinuing "implants" were negating Hubbard's efforts to "clear" Terra. Hubbard, through "re-living" a past life in an "auditing" session, remembered the location of one of these in the Pyrenees Mountains be- tween France and Spain. He dis- appeared from England for some weeks aboard his yacht. On his re- turn he was asked by his secretary where he had been. He gave a little smile and said only, "We will be bothered no more by the Pyrenees Implant Station," and stepped quietly into his private office.

Hubbard has never commented much on these myths except to laugh but they apparently have a life of their own. Presently he claims he is approaching the state of O.T. (Operating Thetan -once defined as a person with full control over matter, energy, space, and time and who is able to create, and uncreate the Universe at will).

We learn a lot about the inten- sity of Hubbard's faith in the effi- cacy of "postulate' and the power of positive thinking by noticing that throughout the years he has been claiming that Scientology was growing by leaps and bounds. There even were many predictions of just when everyone on Terra would be first a Scientologist and then a "dear:'" These claims and speculations continue into the pres- ent although one is hard put to find substantiating evidence. For ex- ample, between 1953 and 1958, there were at least 52 Scientology churches founded in the U.S. alone, while by 1964 Ability lists only 15 in the U.S., one in Canada and one in Mexico (plus, of course, the churches automatically contained in central organizations outside the New World). Even these figures do not necessarily give a good pic- ture of the number of people in- volved, for Hubbard's churches us- ually are synonomous with a Center or City Office and many of these are quite small as well as frequently being somewhat transient.

The Church plus Center in Den- ver, for instance, had a total staff of six as of March, 1964. The one in Las Vegas had a staff of two and the one in Mexico, as far as can be determined, a staff of one. Even the Central Organization in Wash- ington - the Continental Head- quarters for North and South America - had a total staff some- where in the neighborhood of only 60. Moreover, we can compare the fact that there were 200 students in a single class in Los Angeles in 1950 to the fact that during the entire year of 1963 the Washing- ton Academy (presumably the larg- est of the several scattered over the globe) graduated only 35 stu- dents from its four-month classes (the equivalent of nine to a class).

Making comparisons between more recent years, we see Ability listing 153 active franchise "audi- tors" in the U.S. in 1959, although by 1963 a special organizational bulletin was listing only 52. It is difficult to reconcile this informa- tion with Hubbard's January state- Ment that there were two million Scientologists at that time and that the number was doubling every six months.

His salesman/politico approach to reality appears to be an intrin- sic part of his personality and is quite effective in determining and directing the thoughts of his fol- lowers. Moreover, new "processes," new organizational task assign- ments, new goals, new reorganiza- tions, new "enemies," new "tech- nological breakthroughs" and "dis- coveries," new localized Scientology successes (but not failures) flow so rapidly from him that there is almost literally no time for his fol- lowers to notice any contradictory aspects of ambient reality.

Hubbard says that Scientology must save the world; that news- papers are "balderdash" and "merchants of chaos;" that psychoan- alysis is "a world of failure and brutality;" that psychology is "a deadly philosophy;" that medical doctors are not "important enough to be against;- that the Australian government, in "persecuting" Scien- tologists, has "sold out" to the de- sires of the U.S. government; that he has just received an "oblique bid" to furnish the Soviets with Scientology so that they might at last make Communism work; and that the Ford Foundation, after spending seven years and hundreds of millions, retired from mental research in 1957 because Hubbard had already solved the problem.

L. Ron Hubbard, whether he be crackpot or savant, has stepped into the borderline area in a bold, perhaps garish manner. And whe- ther one deplores or admires him, is amused or outraged, it must be admitted that he has added a splash of color to the tapestry of the contemporary scene.

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