Let's Sell These People a Piece of Blue Sky: Hubbard, Dianetics and Scientology (21 page)

To Crowley, Babalon was a manifestation of the Hindu goddess
Shakti, who in one of her aspects is also called the “destroyer of man.”
³⁷
It seems that to Hubbard, Babalon, Hathor, and the Empress were synonymous, and
he was trying to conjure his “Guardian Angel” in the form of a servile
homunculus so he could control the “destroyer of Man.”

Nibs has said he was initiated into Magickal rites by
Hubbard, even after
Dianetics
was released, that his father never
stopped practicing “Magick,” and that Scientology came from “the Dark side of
the Force.”
³⁸

There was also a correspondence between Diana and Isis to
Crowley,
³⁹
and the Empress card represented not only Hathor, but
Isis, in Crowley's system.
⁴⁰
Diana is the patroness of witchcraft.
⁴¹
Hubbard later called one of his daughters Diana, and the name of the first Sea
Org yacht was changed from “
Enchanter
” to “
Diana
.” And then, of
course, there is Dianetics.

After the settlement with Parsons, Hubbard left Florida for
Chestertown, Maryland. On August 10, 1946, he married Sara Elizabeth Northrup,
the girl he had “rescued” from Parsons' black magic group. The marriage was
bigamous as Hubbard was still legally married to Polly.
⁴²

The couple turned up next at Laguna Beach, California. By
the end of 1947, Hubbard was living in Hollywood, and complaining to the
Veterans Administration of his mental instability.
⁴³
He also mentioned
that he was attending the “Geller Theater Workshop,” presumably brushing up his
acting skills. The VA was paying for this under the GI Bill.

In December, Hubbard's pension was increased (to about a
third of a living wage), and his first wife's divorce from him became final;
more than a year after his second marriage. Hubbard was not satisfied with the
increase in his pension, and wrote to the Veterans Administration complaining
about his poor physical condition, and saying that if he did not have to worry
so much about money, he would be able to produce a novel which had been
commissioned.
⁴⁴

That novel,
The End is Not Yet
, had already been
published in
Astounding Science Fiction
, in August 1947. It is about a
nuclear physicist who overthrows a dictatorial system with the creation of a
new philosophy. It has been suggested that the novel had some bearing upon the
creation of the Scientology movement.

Hubbard's writing and the VA pension combined, apparently
did not provide sufficient funds, and in August 1948, Hubbard was arrested in
San Luis Obispo for a check fraud. He was released on probation.
⁴⁵

By January 1949 the Hubbards were in Savannah, Georgia. In a
letter written to his agent that month, Hubbard said that a manuscript he was
working on had more potential for promotion and sales than anything he had ever
encountered.

Hubbard was referring to a therapy system he was working on.
In April, he wrote to several professional organizations, offering Dianetics to
them. None was interested, so Hubbard had to find another outlet for Dianetics,
which he very promptly did.

N.B. The Parsons and Crowley letters come from the OTO
New York Parsons' file. Others have read ‘goats’ where I read ‘louts’ in
Crowley’s letter.

For an examination of Crowley’s influence upon
Scientology see my 1995 paper
Hubbard and the Occult.

1.
   
Armstrong in CSC v. Armstrong vol.12, p.1952; Alva Rogers in “L. Ron
Hubbard: A fan's remembrance”, Darkhouse.

2.
   
The Sunday
Times, 5 October 1969.

3.
   
The Sunday
Times,
28 December 1969.

4.
   
Flynn in CSC v. Armstrong vol.28, p.4828.

5.
   
Knoppes, JPL and the American Space Program, p.12.

6.
   
Hubbard,
Professional Auditors Bulletin
no.110, 15 April 1957.

7.
   
Hubbard, PDC tapes 18, 35 & 40.

8.
   
Hubbard, PDC tape 35.

9.
   
Letter of 7 January 1946. Slightly different versions
of this letter are given in John Symonds The
Great Beast,
p.446, and Francis King
Ritual Magic in
England,
p.162. I am grateful to the OTO in New
York for providing these letters.

10.
 
 see
1

11.
 
Francis King,
The Magical World of Aleister
Crowley.

12.
 
See Kenneth Grant's introduction to
The
Moonchild;
Francis King,
The Secret
Rituals of the OTO;
Primum, part 1
.

13.
 
King, Secret Rituals
of the OTO, pp.187ff, and The Magical World of Aleister Crowley, pp.112-3.

14.
 
Jack
Parsons,
The Book of Babalon
. See also the Yorke transcript of
The
Book of Babalon
.

15.
 
p.447.

16.
 
Francis King, Secret
Rituals of the OTO, p.238.

17.
 
Articles
of Allied Enterprises, 15 January 1946.

18.
 
John
W. Parsons v. Lafayette Ronald Hubbard and Sara Elizabeth Northrup. Bill of
Complaint for Dissolution of Partnership, Accounting and Other Relief, in the
Circuit Court of the 11th Judicial Circuit of Florida, in and for Dade County,
in Chancery. Filed 1 July 1946, docket no.101634.

19.
 
Letter
from Louis T. Culling to Karl Germer, 12 May 1946.

20.
 
Parsons
letter to Crowley, 5 July 1946.

21.
 
Order
Appointing Receiver, in Parsons v. Hubbard and Northrup, docket no.101634,
filed 1 July 1946.

22.
 
Agreement
of Dissolution of Co-Partnership, known as “Allied Enterprises”.

23.
 
Stipulation
in Parsons v. Hubbard.

24.
 
Pasadena
Star News, 18 June 1952.

25.
 
It
is actually a crater, not a mountain.

26.
 
The
“Affirmations” were listed as exhibits 500-4D, 4E, 4F & 4G in CSC v.
Armstrong. They have remained under court seal, but have leaked onto the
internet.

27.
 
in
CSC v. Armstrong, vol.11, p.1886.

28.
 
in
CSC v. Armstrong, vol.11, p.1888.

29.
 
CSC
v. Armstrong, vol.13, pp.2056-7.

30.
 
Litt
in CSC v. Armstrong, vol.11, p.1886.

31.
 
CSC
v. Armstrong, exhibit 500-4K; discussion in vol.26 pp.4606-7.

32.
 
Litt
in CSC v. Armstrong, vol.26, p.4607.

33.
 
Hope,
Practical Egyptian Magic,
pp.39, 47.

34.
 
Burks,
Monitors, p.99.

35.
 
Author's
interview with former Hubbard associate.

36.
 
Crowley,
Magick in Theory and Practice
, p.310. See also Crowley,
The Book of Thoth.

37.
 
King,
The Magical World of Aleister Crowley,
p.56
.

38.
 
Ron
De Wolfe letters to the author. See also his “One tenth of one percent of
Scientology”.

39.
 
Crowley,
The Confessions of Aleister Crowley,
p.693.

40.
 
Crowley,
The Book of Thoth,
p.77.

41.
 
Cavendish,
The Magical Arts.

42.
 
Ron
De Wolfe in Clearwater Hearings, vol.1, p.262; Armstrong in CSC v. Armstrong,
vol.12, p.1939 & vol.26, p.4610; exhibit 500-4N.

43.
 
Hubbard
letter to VA, 15 October 1947.

44.
 
Hubbard
letter to VA, 27 January 1948.

45.
 
San
Luis Obispo Sheriff's Office, no.C1396, arrest date 8 August 1948.

PART three

“Let us suppose that two plateaus exist,
one higher than the other, with a canyon between them. An engineer sees that if
the canyon could be crossed by traffic, the hitherto unused plateau, being much
more fertile and pleasant, would become the scene of a new culture. He sets himself
the task of building a new bridge.”

—L.
Ron Hubbard,
Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health
¹

Chapter eleven

“History has become a race between
Dianetics and catastrophe,”

—Professor
Frederick L. Schuman,
New York Times
.

In December 1949, an announcement appeared in America's leading
science fiction magazine
²
:

The item that most interests me at the moment is an article on
the most important subject conceivable. This is
not
a hoax article. It
is an article on the
science
of the human mind, of human thought. It is
not an article on psychology - that isn't a science. It's not General
Semantics. It is a totally new science, called
Dianetics
, and it does
precisely what a
science
of thought should do. Its power is almost
unbelievable; it proves the mind not only can but does rule the body
completely; following the sharply defined basic laws Dianetics sets forth,
physical ills such as ulcers, asthma and arthritis can be cured, as can all
other psychosomatic ills. The articles are in preparation. It is, quite simply,
impossible to exaggerate the importance of a true science of human thought.

On the facing page was a story by the originator of
Dianetics, called “A Can of Vacuum.” It is about an unschooled practical joker
who makes remarkable scientific discoveries, for example that of “a quart of
rudey rays.” The magazine was
Astounding Science Fiction
, and editor
John Campbell's article was the first mention in print of Dianetics.

The first Hubbard article on Dianetics was published in the spring
of 1950, in an unusual place for a “science of the mind,”
The Explorers Club
Journal
, under the title “Terra Incognita: The Mind.” In the article

Hubbard explained that Dianetics “was intended as a tool for
the expedition commander and doctor who are faced with choosing personnel and
maintaining that personnel in good health.”

Hubbard had arrived in Bay Head, New Jersey, in mid-1949,
armed with the fundamentals of his new science. He was widely known in
science-fiction, having contributed to
Astounding Science Fiction
for
over 11 years. John Campbell, the highly influential editor, had been converted
to Dianetics by a counseling session which relieved his sinusitis, and became
an eager recruiter. Soon, a small group of disciples gathered around Hubbard.
³

Among those brought into the Hubbard circle by Campbell was
Joseph Winter, M.D., who had written medical articles for
Astounding
.
Winter wanted to break down the mystique surrounding medicine. He specialized
in endocrinology, and had tried to modify behavior with hormones, in
experiments at the University of Illinois. Hubbard was later to claim that he
had himself been involved in such experiments at Oak Knoll hospital. An early
letter to Winter, written in July 1949, shows Campbell's enthusiasm for the new
subject
⁴
:

With cooperation from some institutions, some psychiatrists,
he [Hubbard] has worked on all types of cases. Institutionalized
schizophrenics, apathies, manics, depressives, perverts, stuttering, neuroses -
in all nearly 1,000 cases ... he doesn't have proper statistics ... He has
cured every patient he worked. He has cured ulcers, arthritis, and asthma.

Winter wrote to Hubbard asking for more information about
Dianetics. Hubbard replied that he was writing a technical paper and in the
fall of 1949 sent a treatise on “Abnormal Dianetics” to Dr. Winter, who was so
impressed that he gave copies to two colleagues in Chicago. Winter was
disappointed when his colleagues pointed to the shortcomings of Dianetics
without first trying it out.

Winter visited Hubbard in Bay Head in October 1949, later
saying he “became immersed in a life of Dianetics and very little else.” By January
1950, Winter had closed his medical practice in Michigan and moved to New
Jersey.

Winter, Campbell, Hubbard and Don Rogers, an electrical engineer,
worked together refining techniques and coining a new language to voice
Hubbard's ideas. Hubbard was probably the major contributor to these
discussions, and certainly the final arbiter. Winter submitted papers to the
Journals of the American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric
Association. The papers were rejected, because of a lack of clinical
experimentation, or indeed of any substantiation. The Bay Head group then
decided to publish the therapy in
Astounding Science Fiction
, and by January
1950, Hubbard had prepared an article, a modified version of which later became
the book
Dianetics the Evolution of a Science
.
⁵

Unbeknownst to his co-workers, while they were refining
Hubbard's cure-all, he was still trying to obtain a Naval disability retirement
to augment his Veterans Administration award.
⁶

In 1950,
Astounding Science Fiction
had a circulation
of approximately 150,000. Its most noteworthy subscriber was Albert Einstein.
The letters pages often carried correspondence from research scientists and
professors, disputing the feasibility of previous stories (including criticisms
of the poor scientific understanding displayed in Hubbard's stories). Campbell
continued to praise Dianetics in his editorials, generating considerable
interest in the subject without giving away anything substantial concerning
Dianetic methods.