Let's Sell These People a Piece of Blue Sky: Hubbard, Dianetics and Scientology (18 page)

Navy and Veterans Administration files documents tell a very
different and far less stirring tale of Hubbard's war wounds. Hubbard did not
spend a full year
⁵
in Oak Knoll Hospital. He was hospitalized for
tests in April 1945, took a month’s convalescent leave from the end of July,
and was again hospitalized (though spent some time as an outpatient) from the
end of August until he was mustered out of the Navy on December 6, 1945. In
October 1945, a Naval Board gave the opinion that Hubbard was “considered
physically qualified to perform duty ashore preferably within the continental
United States.” The restriction to duty ashore was due to his chronic ulcer.

The official files give a fairly complete record of
Hubbard's medical condition from 1941 well into the 1950s. He was first
hospitalized in Vallejo, California, in March 1942, immediately upon his return
from Australia. There is no mention there, nor anywhere in the extensive
records, of “injured optic nerves,” nor of blindness.

When Hubbard was admitted to Oak Knoll hospital, in 1945, he
had 20/20 vision, with glasses. When he was mustered out, that December, his
eyesight was 12/20 in the right eye, and 14/20 in the left, again with glasses.
The major deterioration coincided with his decision to apply for a disability
pension. In a plaintive letter to the Veterans Administration, Hubbard claimed
that reading for longer than a few minutes gave him a headache.

Following his accidental attack on one of the Coronados
Islands, in June 1943, Hubbard was hospitalized for “stomach trouble,” which
was diagnosed as a duodenal ulcer. In January 1945 he suffered from arthritis,
which he attributed to a climatic change from the tropics to winter in New
York. Hubbard had in fact just served for almost a year in Oregon and northern
California. He was hospitalized in April 1945, for a recurrence of the duodenal
ulcer. The official files support these statements, which were also given by Hubbard
to a Veterans Administration doctor in Los Angeles on September 19, 1946, and
to the press in 1950.
⁶
Neither Hubbard nor the examining doctor made
any mention of war wounds.

At the time of his separation from the Navy, Hubbard applied
to the Veterans Administration for disability benefits. In February 1946, he
was awarded a 10 percent disability pension, of $11.50 per month. His visual
deterioration was not considered pensionable. For several years he campaigned,
with some success, to have his pension increased. Despite his enormous income
in later years, Hubbard continued to draw the pension until his death.

Claims relating to Hubbard's miraculous recovery from his
war wounds have been many and various: “Thanks in great part to the unusual
discoveries that L. Ron Hubbard made while at Oak Knoll in 1944 [sic], he
recovered so fully that he was reclassified for full combat duty.”
⁷
“By 1947, overworked and in poverty, he found he had the glimmerings of a
workable process.”
⁸
“By 1947 he had recovered fully.”
⁹
“In 1949 Hubbard had had the processes applied to him to the extent that he
could again see and sit at a typewriter. He became better physically until he
passed a full combat physical - and lost his naval retirement.”
¹⁰

In an interview given shortly after the creation of
Dianetics, Hubbard was more candid about his war wounds. The December 5 1950
issue of Look magazine quoted him as saying he had been suffering from “ulcers,
conjunctivitis, deteriorating eyesight, bursitis and something wrong with my
feet.” This description fits very well with Hubbard's Navy and Veterans
Administration records.

There are further contradictions in Hubbard's published
Scientological works. At least twice Hubbard referred to an incident shortly
before the end of the War, when, according to his other statements, he was
supposedly incapacitated by his wounds. The first reference was made in a
tape-recorded lecture, given on July 23, 1951;
¹¹
the second in a Bulletin
published on November 15, 1957.
¹²
In both Hubbard claimed that he
was on leave in Hollywood on July 25, 1945. When he was attacked by three petty
officers, one with a broken bottle, but because of his knowledge of Judo, he
was able to fight them off. An impossible feat for a blind cripple.

At the very time that he was supposed to have “recovered
fully,” in October 1947, Hubbard wrote to the Veterans Administration. In the
letter, he claimed that after two years he was still unbalanced because of his
wartime service. He was suffering from prolonged bouts of depression and
frequently thought of taking his own life. He pleaded for psychiatric
treatment:

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 ... Would you please help me?

Hubbard was examined again in December 1947, and a few
dollars were added to his pension for the arthritic condition of his right hip,
spine and ankles. Hubbard said he had sprained his left knee in the service,
but the doctor did not allow this. His award was raised to a 40 percent
disability, which in 1947 amounted to $55.20 a month. In 1948, he applied for a
Navy disability retirement, which at the time would have amounted to $181 per
month, tax-free. His disabilities were not sufficient for such a retirement.
Far from being “permanently disabled physically,” Hubbard was twice refused a
physical disability retirement from the Navy Reserve.

In his book
Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental
Health
, published in May 1950, Hubbard made many claims for the curative
powers of his new therapy. They are very revealing in the light of the Veterans
Administration documents. Dianetics would cure or alleviate arthritis, bursitis,
poor eyesight, ulcers, and even the common cold.
¹³
Hubbard suffered
from all of these, and 15 months after announcing his miracle cure to the
world, he still privately claimed to be disabled and continued to collect his
Veterans pension. On August 1, 1951, he was examined again. He said he had been
suffering from stomach trouble since 1943. The examining physician noted:

He states that he spent approximately thirteen months in
hospitals during his navy service, and that a duodenal ulcer was demonstrated
by x-ray on several occasions ... he says that he has been forced to follow a
modified ulcer diet continuously since his initial gastro-intestinal disturbance
in 1943. The spring and the fall of the year are the most troublesome time for
him, and he states that he has exacerbations lasting usually about a week with
rather severe distress during these months ... The patient states that he
invariably has trouble with his stomach when he is working long hours and under
nervous stress. He is a poor sleeper, and states that he has been unable to
take the usual soporifics because they seem to upset his stomach. He smokes
very little, and then only intermittently. He believes that smoking definitely
aggravates his epigastric distress.

Under the heading “Impression,” the doctor wrote: “duodenal
ulcer, chronic.” Under the heading “Diagnosis,” he wrote: “Duodenal ulcer, not
found on this examination.” This was one of two specialist examinations
performed on Hubbard that day in 1951. The second was orthopedic. In that
report, it is noted:

He also gives a history of injuring his right
shoulder, just how is not clear, and of developing numerous other things
including duodenal ulcer, actinic conjunctivitis, and a highly nervous state.
He has applied for retirement from the navy [from the Reserve list] which was
eventually turned down ... He is a writer by profession and states he has some
income from previous writing that helps take care of him ... This is a well-nourished
and muscled white adult who does not appear chronically ill ...

He has a history of some injury to the right shoulder
and will not elevate the arm above the shoulder level. However, on persuasion,
it was determined at this time that the shoulder is freely movable and unrestricted.
It is noted that he has had a previous diagnosis of BURSITIS WITH
CALCIFICATION. X-rays will be repeated. It is not believed that this is of
significant incapacity ... Records show a diagnosis of MULTIPLE ARTHRITIS.
However, no clinical evidence of arthritis is found at this time.

Hubbard's Sea Org “Medical Officer,” Kima Douglas, testified
in court that while she attended him from 1975 to 1980, he suffered from
arthritis, bursitis and coronary trouble,
¹⁴
which Dianetics was also
supposed to alleviate. Hubbard wore glasses throughout his adult life, but only
in private.

During the Armstrong case, a Hubbard letter to the Veterans
Administration, dated April 2, 1958, was produced. Gerry Armstrong had this to
say of it:

In my mind there was a conflict between the fact that here he
is asking to have his V.A. [Veterans Administration] checks sent to a particular
address in 1958, and in all the publications about Mr. Hubbard he had claimed
that he had been given a perfect score, perfect mental and physical score by
1950 and by 1947 had completely cured himself, and here he is still drawing a
V.A. check for this disability ... It seems like there is at least a
contradiction and possibly an unethical practice on his part.

During the case, a document was read into the record which
clearly shows Hubbard's state of mind during the period when he was supposedly
developing his science of mind. It is part of a collection of documents which
Armstrong dubbed “The Affirmations,” because they are a series of positive
suggestions which Hubbard was instilling into himself through self-hypnosis. In
“The Affirmations” Hubbard attributed each of his physical difficulties to some
evasion on his part. His eyesight was poor because he had wanted to avoid
school. His ulcer was an excuse to avoid discipline in the Navy. He admitted
that he had never really had any trouble with his hip. He added, however, that
through hypnotic command he would be able to convincingly pretend any of these
and several other disabilities to obtain a pension, but would return to health
an hour after any examination, amused by the stupidity of his examiners. He
also commented that his lies would have no effect upon his true condition.
¹⁵

N.B. This chapter depends largely upon Hubbard's Navy and
Veterans Administration records.

1.
   
Read into the record in CSC v. Armstrong vol.12, p.1927.

2.
   
Flag Divisional Directive 69RA “Facts about Hubbard Things You Should
Know”, 8 March 1974, revised 7 April 1974.

3.
   
Hubbard, Technical Bulletins, vol.6, p.1.

4.
   
Ken Hoden in the
LA Weekly
April 4-10, 1986, p.22.

5.
   
Hubbard,
Mission into Time.

6.
   
Look
magazine, December 1950.

7.
   
Hubbard,
Mission into Time,
p.11.

8.
   
Hubbard,
SelfAnalysis,
1951 edition.

9.
   
Hubbard,
All About Radiation.

10.
 
see
8.

11.
 
Hubbard,
Research and Discovery
vol.6, p.409.

12.
 
Hubbard,
Technical Bulletins
, vol.3, p.146.

13.
 
pp.11,
51, 52, 92, 376.

14.
 
Douglas
in CSC v. Armstrong, vol.25, p.4459.

15.
 
CSC
v. Armstrong, vol.12, pp.1925-7. The Affirmations or Admissions are now
available at
http://www.gerryarmstrong.org/50grand/writings/ars/ars-2000-03-11.html

Chapter ten

“The late Aleister Crowley, my very good
friend.”

—L.
Ron Hubbard,
Conditions of Space Time Energy
, 1952,
PDC
lecture
18

“Hubbard broke up black magic in
America.”

—Scientology
PR statement

Hubbard met Jack Parsons while on convalescent leave in Los
Angeles, in August 1945. When Hubbard's terminal leave from the Navy began on
December 6, 1945, he went straight to Parsons' Pasadena home.
¹
Jack
Parsons was a science-fiction fan, a rocket and explosives chemist, and a
practitioner of ritual “magick.” Hubbard and Parsons quickly formed a powerful
bond, and over the following months engaged in variations on Aleister Crowley's
“magick.” Later, Hubbard was eager to make light of this involvement. After
all, the world famous explorer, nuclear physicist, war hero and philosopher
could not be known to have engaged in demonic sexual rites.

In 1969,
The London Sunday Times
exposed Hubbard's
magickal connections.
²
The Scientologists threatened legal action,
and the
Sunday Times
, unsure of its legal position, paid a small
out-of-court settlement. Without retracting their earlier article, they printed
a statement submitted by the Scientologists
³
:

Hubbard broke up black magic in America: Dr. Jack
Parsons of Pasadena, California, was America's Number One solid fuel rocket
expert. He was involved with the infamous English black magician Aleister
Crowley who called himself “The Beast 666.” Crowley ran an organization called
the Order of Templars Orientalis [sic, actually “Ordo Templi Orientis”] over
the world which had savage and bestial rites. Dr. Parsons was head of the
American branch located at 100 Orange Grove Avenue [actually 1003 South Orange
Grove Avenue], Pasadena, California. This was a huge old house which had paying
guests who were the USA nuclear physicists working at Cal. Tech. Certain
agencies objected to nuclear physicists being housed under the same roof.