State of Protest

Imagine, if you will, the diversity in that group photo! The History Channel’s 2005 documentary, Ape to Man, attempts to recreate just that in a handy, 100 minute film. We learn of the struggles of the dedicated men who sought to answer some of the most fundamental questions of human existence… Who are we? Who are our evolutionary ancestors? Where on Earth do we come from? As the film explains within the first few minutes, for ages, we had no scientific explanation for these questions. That is, until the discoveries made over the last century by the scientists who risked much to bring us such revelations.

The film highlights a number of fossil milestones that mark various points along the 3 million year procession from ape-like creature to human-like protoman. It also unearths the controversies faced by those that made the discoveries, and the social climate at the time of their introduction into the scientific world. The first fossil is discovered in 1856 by a limestone harvesting crew in a cave in the Neander Valley, Germany. What is originally thought to be a piece of skull of a modern day murder victim is brought to the foreman’s attention, and is, amazingly enough, almost discarded. At the last minute, though, he instead decides to show it to a teacher friend of his he believes might have some interest in the item. The “murder victim” turns out to be a 40,000 year old skull of the hominin that is later named (you guessed it!) Neanderthal.

The interesting part is the initial hesitance on the part of the Victorian scientific community to identify this find as a new species of man. The skull is, at first, thought to belong to a barbarian that fought the Roman legions, the victim of an unknown congenital deformity, even a lost Russian Cossack. The high school anatomy teacher that retrieved the skull fragment is the first to suggest it is an ancestor to man. To most of the population at the time, this idea was absurd. Three years later, Darwin’s “Origin of Species” is published, and popular opinion regarding Neanderthal begins to change. We begin also to attempt to flesh out our family tree, and the race is on to become the first scientist to discover the “missing link,” an animal more exactly between ape and man.

That is not to say human obstinance does not play its own part in hindering the scientific process… The desire to place this “missing link” in Europe leads to one of the biggest blunders of all time in the search for our true ancestor. Piltdown man, presented before the Royal Geographical Society in 1912 by Charles Dawson, was the ideal candidate for such a creature. Its brain was large, like a human being’s, and its jaw was primitive like that of an ape. Aside from that, it was discovered in England, which is what seems to have primarily cemented its place in history. This meant our origins could be traced back to Europe, not Asia, as was previously thought, and therefore appealed to the British scientific minds of the time. Because the find was so popular, little digging was done to verify its authenticity. Decades pass before the truth is realized.

When a true contender to the throne, Taung child (or Australopithecus africanus) from South Africa was discovered by Australian anatomist Raymond Dart in 1924, it nearly devastated his career. The initial introduction of the first human ancestor to come from Africa known at the time (and earliest, at over 2,000,000 years old,) was met with much opposition. The small brain and fine teeth of Taung did not fit the mold of what scientists wanted. One London scientist who reviewed Dart’s find placed it in the same family as gorillas without having actually seen the fossil for himself. 25 years pass until Dart and his fossil gain the recognition they deserve.

In 1953, 40 years after Pildown’s ascension to the role of “missing link,” the fossil is examined scientifically for the first time. It is finally proven to be the hoax that it has been all along. The celebrated jawbone, is, indeed from a modern ape that has simple had its teeth filed down.

The tale told of our rich history (both ancient and modern) in this film is both fascinating and, well, humorous! It goes to show that even in the face of some our greatest discoveries, human selfishness has the ability to be one of our greatest downfalls. Even the most scientifically inclined among us fall victim to this kind of behavior. We are reluctant to change, we don’t like to have our conventional beliefs challenged, and we are afraid of what we don’t know. We often favor our ideas even if they aren’t the best idea going, and we don’t appreciate someone else trying to steal our thunder. What evolutionary need there is for these traits remains to be speculated. To the author, though, it’s an endearing, if annoying aspect of all of us. Perhaps one day we shall, as a species, overcome these feelings, and embrace the truth more readily, just as our ancestors overcame their fears in order to harness the power of fire. Or maybe that sort of thing will have to be up to the next species that springs from our primitive loins.

__________________________________________________________

Ape To Man for purchase

Neanderthal man

Raymond Dart on Wikipedia

Book Review: Everything You Know About God is Wrong, Edited by Russ Kick

Hello, fellow procrastinators! I have the solution to your atheist gift-giving conundrums. So far I’ve given you many suggestions for Yule gifts to spread the light of Reason to friends and family alike.

This book is not for the confirmed atheist, nor the informed agnostic. This book is for those who think they know, but don’t care to think that much about their beliefs, those who are curious but don’t care quite enough about their skepticism to really investigate, and anyone else you think would benefit from a basic primer containing the best and most obvious arguments against religion. These are the topics that get hashed out on various forums, and all of the things you’d really like everyone to know.

It’s a starting point. I’d say that, if you’re brave (or filled with the courage of eggnog and hot buttered rum), you can also give this book to anyone who has ever sent you a mind-numbingly inane email involving some bourgeois problem followed by divine intervention, or some melodramatic, Christian-tinted urban legend easily debunked by a trip to snopes.com. These people will probably be shocked, horrified, and maybe even curious. Most likely you will start a family feud, or even an unholy estrangement from the more religious members of your family. As horrifying as that sounds, it’s actually kind of fun to be the naughty one for a while. Your more interesting relatives will show you newfound respect that you had the drunken balls to send your Aunt and Uncle, (the former Missionaries to Hawaii) such an outrageous gift, particularly if you let them open it in front of the whole family.

Why stop there, though? This would be a great White Elephant gift at a religious party. Just imagine, this book going from hand to hand as people trade it for something else and foist it on someone else until it gets into the hands of one of the Goth teens who are truly thrilled to have it. Then the youth minister decides that now is the time to grow a spine and he tries to forcefully take it away from the scary girl-woman with a pierced lip and black fingernails. He will be humiliated to find (and prove once and for all) that she can physically overpower him quite easily.

My dears, I cannot recommend more highly this book, not so much as a pithy and wise treasure trove– after all, for most of us none of this information is remotely new. No, this is more of a Malatov Cocktail of a book, to be given with utmost care and strategy, to the budding free thinker and also to the religious, provided they open it in public for maximum effect.

Happy Yule!

The word ‘Scientology’ comes from the Latin word ‘scio’ meaning ‘knowing in the fullest sense of the word’ and the Greek word ‘logos’ meaning ‘study of.’ The doctrine of Scientology was recorded by L. Ron Hubbard in 500,000 pages of writings, 6,500 reels of tape and 42 films. This doctrine reflects the influence of the Hindu concept of karma, as well as the psychological theories of Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, and William Sargant. Scientology does not have a single book that is the equivalent of the Bible or the Quran, but the study of Scientology may be done chronologically through its basic books and lectures.¹

Scientology states that it is fully compatible with all existing major world religions, but in fact, Scientology only allows a passive formal membership in a second religion. Because of the major differences in beliefs and practices between Scientology and most major world religions, to call them compatible is disingenuous. Followers are not permitted to participate in other religious activities or ceremonies outside of Scientology. They do, however, celebrate many of our cultural holidays such as Christmas and New Year’s, although these celebrations remain primarily secular.²

Scientologists believe that humans survive across eight dynamics, “Self,” “Family and Sex,” “Group,” “Humanity,” “The Animal Kingdom,” “The Physical Universe,” “Spirits,” and “God or Infinity.” They believe all of these dynamics must be considered equally. The Scientology cross, which is often used to represent the Church of Scientology, has eight sides which represent these eight dynamics.³ Scientology offers no specific dogma, but Scientologists believe the nature of a Supreme Being is revealed to individuals as they become more spiritually aware. They believe that a universal life force (theta) exists in all humans and that humans (thetans) are capable of achieving a nearly godlike state through Scientology practices. One of these practices is Dianetics, which Hubbard claimed could “invariably cure all psychosomatic ills and human aberrations.”⁴ According to Hubbard, people become “aberrated” by traumatic incidents and bad decisions (even those that occurred in past lives; Scientologists believe we are immortal) and must free themselves of this trauma through a process called “auditing.” They believe that through this process, they can achieve states of increasingly greater mental awareness, called Pre-Clear, Clear, and Operating Thetan. They believe Operating Thetans have the power to control matter, energy, space, time, thought, and life.⁵

Most auditing sessions employ a device called the Hubbard Electropsychometer. Scientologists believe this “E-Meter” can help an individual achieve a state of Clear, and eventually Operating Thetan, through measuring changes in the electrical resistance of the mind. To do this, approximately 0.5 volts are passed through a pair of tin-plated tubes held by the Pre-Clear and attached to the E-Meter by wires. It is believed that this aids the auditor in identifying engrams (unconscious, painful memories), incidents (alien interventions from past lives), and implants (engrams which are inflicted deliberately and with evil intent). According to Hubbard, extraterrestrial dictatorships such as Helatrobus attempted to brainwash and control the population trillions of years ago through these implants, and this is the derivation of many of our past traumas. Hubbard wrote extensive accounts of complex extraterrestrial civilizations and their interventions in earthly events, collectively described as “space opera.” Scientology’s Trementina Base has a huge symbol carved into the ground which marks a ‘return point’ for members, so they can find the founder’s works when they travel here in the future from other galaxies.⁶

It is very difficult for Scientologists to advance into the eight Operating Thetan (OT) levels of study. Those who participate in these advanced courses are strictly forbidden from discussing or disclosing their contents. However, in 1995, a former member published excerpts and descriptions of these materials online, and they were quickly circulated by the mainstream media, so we now have access to much of the teachings.⁷ Those who reach OT level III are told of the story of Xenu, an alien who lived 75 million years ago and was the ruler of the “Galactic Confederacy.” According to these teachings, he brought billions of people to Earth in spacecraft, stacked them around volcanoes and blew them up with hydrogen bombs. Their souls then clustered together and stuck to the bodies of the living. Scientologists believe that many of the physical illnesses modern-day humans experience are caused by these clustered alien souls, or “Body Thetans,” who continue to stick to us today.

1. Bridge Publications: The Basics [↩]
2. Steve Bruce: Cathedrals to cults: the evolving forms of the religious life. In: Paul Heelas (Hrsg.): Religion, Modernity, and Postmodernity, Blackwell, Oxford 1998, pp. 19-35, 23. [↩]
3. Introduction to Scientology Ethics, 2007 edition, pg. 12 [↩]
4. Hubbard, “Dianetics,” Astounding Science Fiction, May 1950 [↩]
5. http://www.beliefnet.com/story/80/story_8057_1.html [↩]
6. Leiby, Richard Scientology church’s mark inscribed in N.M. desert scrub, published November 29, 2005 in the Free New Mexican [↩]
7. Reitman, Janet, “Inside Scientology: Unlocking the complex code of America’s most mysterious religion,” Rolling Stone, 2006 [↩]

Shortly after Halloween had ended, it began. Christmas. Small signs of the impending, inescapable attack of the Christmas season had already begun to appear. The seasonal aisles of my supermarket were cleared of Halloween sweets, supplies, and decorations to be replaced with Christmas sweets, plastic evergreen trees, decorations, and gifts. Soon my mind began to wander: Do the men selling the $5 “Keep the Christ in Christmas” magnets at the supermarket know (or care) that many Christmas traditions are pagan in origin? How much of these traditions and customs are directly related to the actual birth of Jesus? Did I correctly remember that Christmas celebrations were at one time outlawed in Colonial America?

Let’s have a quick look at Colonial America, the Pilgrims, and Christmas.

The Pilgrims were separatists who sought to purify the Church of England by ridding it of all Roman Catholic influence. These Puritans regarded Christmas as a frivolous and wasteful celebration which was unaligned with core Christian beliefs. They had found no historical or scriptural reference regarding the December 25th birthday of Jesus. They denounced Christmas as a pagan ritual that had been disguised in Christianity. Providing further impetus for the Puritan suppression of Christmas was the manner in which the celebration occurred. Raucous behavior, mockery, and excessive consumption of food and alcohol were common characteristics of the Christmas celebration. The celebrations were thought to be so disruptive and unsavory at the time, that the General Court of Massachusetts declared in 1659 that celebration of Christmas was to be a criminal offense (the law was repealed in 1681).¹ So, on December 25th, Puritan separatists toiled as they would have on any other day while frowning upon the celebration of Christmas.

It is somewhat of a loss that the Puritanical suppression of Christmas did not catch on. I tire of the annual Christmas bombardment. In the United States, the Christmas holiday permeates the marketplace for at least two full months. This is where I stifle my rant about Christmastime consumerism. I encounter Christmas party after Christmas party, each meant to celebrate the birth of Jesus. This year I have been metaphorically submerged in mistletoe and holly that sometimes I think I may drown. On the other hand, I enjoy the paid Christmas vacation. I enjoy it, that is, until I stop to think about the origin of Christmas and its traditions.

As I mentioned above, Puritans denounced Christmas as a pagan ritual that had been re-wrapped in Christian wrapping paper. In pre-Christian Europe, it was a tradition to celebrate the winter solstice. Celebrating the winter solstice may be one of the oldest winter celebrations in the world. As the winter solstice approached, each day grew shorter, darker, and colder. Ancient peoples may have believed the sun’s power was weakening as the days progressed toward the winter solstice. When the winter solstice finally arrived, this “loss of power” would cease and the days would grow longer and brighter as the sun’s strength was “reborn”. This would certainly be cause to celebrate, consuming the food and drink that had been the fruits of a successful year of harvest. Different pagan festivals were present in pre-Christian Europe, most of these were related to either the sun or the winter solstice. The largest of the Roman festivals was Saturnalia. Near the time of winter solstice, Romans celebrated Saturnalia in honor of Saturn, the god of agriculture and harvest. The celebration was one of feasts, gifts, tom-foolery, gift-giving, and role-reversal. Romans celebrating Saturnalia could be found decorating their homes with greenery and candles. Another Roman festival was Dies Natalis Solis Invicti “the birthday of the unconquered Sun”. The use of the title “Sol Invictus” as it pertained to this festival encompassed several sun gods including Mithras², the patron god of Emporer Aurelian. In northern Europe, Yule was celebrated by the Celts who believed that the sun stood still for twelve days in mid-winter. During these twelve days, a Yule log was lit to conquer the darkness. Mistletoe was a symbol of life during the dark winter months and was also used in many Druid ceremonies. It was harvested by Celtic priests on or about the winter solstice from holy oak trees. ³

Feasts, frolic, candles, bright evergreens, yule logs, holly, and mistletoe - all are part of our modern Christmas celebrations, all are pagan in origin. Since these festivals were age-old traditions, pagans were extremely hesitant to stop celebrating them as part of conversion to Christianity. Some Christians even enjoyed partaking in the pagan celebrations:

“It was a custom of the Pagans to celebrate on the same 25 December the birthday of the Sun, at which they kindled lights in token of festivity. In these solemnities and revelries the Christians also took part. Accordingly when the doctors of the Church perceived that the Christians had a leaning to this festival, they took counsel and resolved that the true Nativity should be solemnised on that day.”⁴

The Roman Catholic Church needed a method by which the pagans would more easily accept Christianity. The church found this method in the institution of December 25th as a feast in honor of Christ’s birth. The Roman Catholic Church proposed a December 25th Christian celebration which would actively oppose the Roman pagan holiday of Natalis Solis Invicti “the birthday of the unconquered Sun”. It was to take place on the same day of celebration as the pagan celebration. The first Christmas within the Roman Catholic Church occurred when Pope Sixtus III officiated the first Christ Mass on December 25th, 435.⁵⁶

Perhaps there is merit to the Christian celebration of Christ’s birth. Unfortunately, the Bible does not mention in what month (or what day) Jesus was born. When reading the nativity story, a December birth seems unlikely. Would shepherds and their flocks sleep outside during a cold winter night? The story also contains a reference to the census requested by Caesar Augustus. According to the story, the census required that people return to their town of origin. Winter months would have been poor traveling for many. Indeed, a winter birth date of Christ is not likely. Since the birth date of Jesus is not known, I suppose that it is acceptable to honor a person on a day other than the day of their birth. However, the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus should be the most revered holiday for Christians, seeing as how these events are core to the Christian doctrine. Why create a new holiday to honor his birth? Assimilation. The pre-Christian pagan festivals were too difficult for the Roman Catholic church to combat, so they conveniently began celebrating the birth of Jesus at the same time of year that the pagan festivals had traditionally occurred.

Pagan celebrations of the winter solstice appear to be the real “Reason for the Season”. Without their occurrence, I doubt that we would be celebrating Christmas, and if we did, I doubt that it would take place in winter with the traditions we see today. The celebration of Christmas did not originate as a reverent time of reflection of Christ’s birth. It was a strategy of the Roman Catholic Church to successfully Christianize European pagans. This contradicts the message I had received when growing up in the Methodist church. I had believed that Christmas was a solemn observation of the birth of Jesus Christ. This holiday is misrepresented. Instead of originating as a reverent celebration, it seems to have originated as a Roman Catholic conversion tactic - a tactic which has stolen and repackaged pagan celebrations and customs in an effort to Christianize non-Christians.

1. The Battle for Christmas, 1996 page 14 [↩]
2. The Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913 “Mithraism” [↩]
3. http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/paganism/holydays/wintersolstice.shtml [↩]
4. Christianity and Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries, Ramsay MacMullen. Yale:1997, p155 [↩]
5. Manual of Liturgical History, 1955, Vol. 2, p. 67 [↩]
6. Encyclopedia Brittanica 1944 edition, “Christmas” [↩]

It’s that season again where we indulge. And indulge. And indulge. And blame it on Jesus being born. Hey, probably not an entirely bad way to spend a cold, wet winter. I was recently endowed with a wonderful monetary gift from my mother-in-law, and tasked to go find myself something, as it’s the gift-receiving season. After days of morbid searching on various websites for common gift ideas, finding absolutely nothing that interested me except for possibly a chin-up bar (and how fun that sounds, eh?), I finally somehow recalled that as a teenager, I had always desired a radio controlled helicopter, but could never afford one. Thus, I started my search. Sifting through dozens of confusing sites dedicated to RC airplanes, helicopters, boats, cars, and the like, I found some helpful forum posts that guided me to a good beginner to intermediate RC helicopter that didn’t cost a fortune. Then, trying to be responsible with my expenditures, I began tapping retail websites in order to find the best price.

The price for this helicopter varied among sites significantly, and I quickly discovered that many retailers were located in China, which, with shipping, added quite a sum that would be comparable to U.S. retailers. Regardless of the small savings I might have with those retailers, I preferred a U.S. retailer because I might need to send something back for warranty or repair, and I might want to order parts later, and would rather stick with the same retailer if the prices were overall reasonable. So, I narrowed my scope to about three or four U.S. retailers, all with similar costs. One, though, was my pick from the very beginning (We’ll call it Site-X). It has a nicely designed website with very informative descriptions, ease of use, and good prices. I was about to click the magic “order” button, but I wanted to add some training landing gear (because I’m new at this), and I didn’t see it on Site-X. At the same time, I decided to do some minimal research on Site-X just to make sure that it didn’t have a bad reputation among the RC people. I plugged “Site-X” into Google, and I was somewhat surprised to see a Wikipedia page on the main company behind SiteX.

The description of SiteX started off positively, reassuring me that the company was, in fact, a U.S.-based company, and that the owner was its founder and was doing well as a business. Then something odd caught my attention. The Wikipedia article stated that SiteX created store continuity for its physical locations by playing satellite music, chosen specifically by the owner to be mostly continually looping instrumental adaptations of traditional Christian hymns. At first, I thought, “That’s not so bad. The owner is just trying to appeal to the widest audience.” Then, I kept reading.

Among the shocking details was that SiteX is connected to several Assemblies of God¹ and Dominionist² Christian groups, and to Bill Gothard³(a conservative Christian teacher who has held, among many other controversial beliefs, that “A couple who is contemplating a VBAC Vaginal Birth After Cesarean should ask the Lord to give them a specific portion of Scripture that they can claim for the birth. Both the father and the mother should memorize and meditate on this passage and use it to conquer any fear that may come during the pregnancy or delivery.” He also famously protested against Cabbage Patch Kids⁴ because, he claimed, they could lead to difficulties in conceiving or giving birth to a child.)⁵ SiteX also closes its doors on Sundays, out of respect to the founder’s Christian beliefs.

In 2007, the founder donated $70 million to Oral Roberts University⁶ after it was made known that Richard Roberts⁷(Oral’s⁸ son, and the current president of ORU) had misappropriated a tremendous amount of university funds over the course of years.

I thought to myself, what kind of hypocrite would I be if I purchased a product from this company? Aren’t I supposed to be actively protesting against companies like that, people like that? So, I found a reliable alternative company and paid a few more dollars, and avoided a conflict of interest. And I felt good about it. Smug, perhaps. Enough so that I started this article to show that rational activism can work on all scales. It doesn’t have to be about tearing down every church with force and vigor. It can be about making informed choices as to where you shop, where you vacation, to whom you give your money. Who knows where it’s really going if you don’t look?

Then, while researching SiteX for this article, I noticed something I hadn’t noticed earlier. On the Wikipedia site, it plainly states (at the very bottom) “”SiteX” is not related to “Site-X,” a chain of smaller stores specializing in radio controlled model aircraft.” Oops. Well, now it made much more sense. However, I learned something, and I was invigorated by seeing a new and effective way to respond to people who tell me, “Okay, I want to be a rational activist. What do I do?” I can say, “Research, and don’t buy from people who send their money as donations or payments to religious-affiliated organizations.” That’s a start, at least. Now I want to start making a comprehensive list, a web, to show relationships to religious organizations, and retailers to avoid.

The morals of this story:

1. Wikipedia needs to put that disclaimer on the top of the SiteX⁹ web page — http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobby_Lobby — since, no doubt, I’m not the only person to have misread.
2. Sorry, Site-X,¹⁰ I think you’re being abused without your knowledge.
3. If you want an RC item, buy from Site-X (I haven’t found anything bad about them).
4. I need to pay better attention, but perhaps this was fate, eh?
5. Don’t buy anything from SiteX¹¹(the company the article spoke of).
6. Don’t buy anything (if you can help it) from religious organizations or organizations that donate or otherwise fund religious organizations or any organization you believe impedes rational thought and progression.

Buy From:
“Site-X” — Hobby-Lobby International, Inc., www.hobby-lobby.com, in Tennessee, which sells a bunch of cool RC stuff, and is not affiliated with the other similarly-named store.

Don’t Buy From:
“SiteX” — Hobby Lobby, www.hobbylobby.com, an arts & crafts (of sorts) store in Oklahoma, owned and founded by David Green,¹² who was listed as #133 on Forbes’ List of the 400 Richest Americans, and who also “lives to spread the Word of God.”¹³

-Procrustes¹⁴

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assemblies_of_god [↩]
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominionist [↩]
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Gothard [↩]
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabbage_Patch_Kids [↩]
5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Gothard [↩]
6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oral_Roberts_University [↩]
7. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Roberts_%28evangelist%29 [↩]
8. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oral_Roberts [↩]
9. http://www.hobbylobby.com/ [↩]
10. http://www.hobby-lobby.com/ [↩]
11. http://www.hobbylobby.com/ [↩]
12. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Green_%28entrepreneur%29 [↩]
13. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Green_%28entrepreneur%29 [↩]
14. Look at those footnotes, and then tell me I shouldn’t have been confused! [↩]

The first Church of Scientology was formed in 1953 in New Jersey by Science Fiction author Lafayette Ronald Hubbard, better known as L. Ron Hubbard. Scientology promotes the use of Dianetics, a self-help system developed by Hubbard, which attempts to “clear” the portion of the mind which stores trauma. Part Two of this article will go into further detail on Dianetics and other practices of Scientology, but I would like to begin with some background on the fascinating life of L. Ron Hubbard.

Hubbard’s father was in the Navy, which allowed the family to travel often. Hubbard loved to share the stories of his travels, particularly of his time spent in the Far East between 1927 and 1929. His followers would later repeat, “Among other wonders, Ron told of watching monks meditate for weeks on end, contemplating higher truths … he befriended … a thoroughly insightful Beijing magician … Old Mayo was well versed in China’s ancient wisdom that had been handed down from generation to generation. Ron passed many evenings in the company of such wise men, eagerly absorbing their words … he closely examined the surrounding culture. … he spent time with nomadic bandits originally from Mongolia … [t]hese sojourns in Asia and the Pacific islands had a profound effect, giving Ron a subjective understanding of Eastern philosophy … the world itself was his classroom, and he studied in it voraciously, recording what he saw and learned in his ever-present diaries…”¹

These stories paint a picture of an open-minded young man, eagerly absorbing culture and philosophy, but his “ever-present diaries” tell a very different story. They make no mention of Old Mayo the Beijing magician or nomad bandits, and they contain no reflection on Eastern philosophy. Instead, there are entries such as: “As a Chinaman can not live up to a thing, he always drags it down.” and “They smell of all the baths they didnt [sic] take. The trouble with China is, there are too many chinks here.” He described the Tibetan Buddhist temples as “very odd and heathenish … miserably cold and very shabby … The people worshiping have voices like bull-frogs and beat a drum and play a brass horn to accompany their singing…”²

In 1933, Hubbard married Margaret “Polly” Grub, with whom he fathered two children. It was around this time that he began his career in writing, quickly becoming well-known in the science fiction, fantasy, and pulp fiction genres. In 1938, he wrote a letter to Polly reading, “I have high hopes of smashing my name into history so violently that it will take a legendary form, even if all the books are destroyed. That goal is the real goal as far as I am concerned.” After serving in the U.S. Navy in World War II, during which he was the subject of several negative reports,³ Hubbard abandoned his wife and children and married Sara Northrup. This was an act of bigamy, as he did not divorce his first wife for more than a year after he had remarried.⁴ Both women claim Hubbard physically abused them. When Sara filed for divorce in 1950, she accused Hubbard of kidnapping their baby daughter Alexis, and of “systematic torture, beatings, strangulations and scientific torture experiments.”⁵ Hubbard later disowned Alexis, claiming she was the child of his friend, Jack Parsons.

Jack Parsons was an aeronautics professor and an associate of British occultist Aleister Crowley. Hubbard and Parsons allegedly attempted to summon a goddess or “moonchild” in 1946 by practicing sex magic rituals called the Babalon Working. Hubbard later claimed he was on a mission to end Parsons’ practices in ritual magick and to “rescue” a girl being used in the rituals, who happened to be Sara Northrup, Hubbard’s second wife. Crowley’s notes at this time indicate that he considered Hubbard a “lout” who made off with Parsons’ money and girlfriend in an “ordinary confidence trick.”⁶

After his second divorce, Hubbard threw himself into his writings and in 1952, the same year he expanded Dianetics into Scientology, he married Mary Sue Whipp. They had four children together and remained married until Hubbard’s death in 1986, although they separated in the early 1970s. As Scientology grew in both numbers and controversy, Hubbard began to distance himself from the unwanted attention. In 1967, he resigned as executive director of the church and declared himself “Commodore” of a small fleet of ships, appointing a crew of Scientologists known as the “Sea Org.” He spent the next eight years sailing the Mediterranean Sea and being attended by teenage girls dressed in white hot pants, known as the “Commodore’s Messengers.” He was said to have had frequent screaming tantrums, and errant crew members were punished brutally through incarceration in the ship’s chain-locker for weeks at a time or through “overboarding,” in which they would be bound, blindfolded, and thrown into the sea. In a letter home to Mary Sue, he wrote, “I’m drinking lots of rum and popping pinks and greys…”⁷

After returning home and being weaned off a diet consisting almost entirely of drugs, he began to run into many legal difficulties, including accusations of espionage, conspiracy against the U.S. Federal government, and fraud through skimming millions of dollars from church accounts. In the mid-1970s Hubbard decided to end his life at sea, but covertly returned to the United States. He later retired to a ranch in California, where he began writing science fiction again in the 1980s. He died on his ranch at age 74, reportedly from a stroke. The official announcement of the Church of Scientology was that Hubbard had deliberately discarded his body to do “higher level spiritual research,” and was now living “on a planet a galaxy away.”⁸

1. 1923-1929: On the road to discovery, L. Ron Hubbard: Shaping the 21st Century with Solutions for a Better World 1-2. [↩]
2. Miller, Russell. Bare-faced messiah: The true story of L. Ron Hubbard, 1987 [↩]
3. Sappell, Joel; Welkos, Robert W.. “The Mind Behind The Religion“, Los Angeles Times [↩]
4. Atack, Jon (1990). A Piece of Blue Sky. New York, NY: Carol Publishing Group [↩]
5. Lattin, Don. “Scientology Founder’s Family Life Far From What He Preached”, San Francisco Chronicle, 2001 [↩]
6. Scientology: A new light on Crowley, Sunday Times, December 28, 1969 [↩]
7. L. Ron Hubbard: Messiah or Madman? Corydon [↩]
8. ”The Making of L. Ron Hubbard,” Los Angeles Times, June 24, 1990 [↩]