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Hubbard soon found his niche in the pulp fiction magazines, becoming a prolific and prominent writer in the medium. From 1934 until 1940, Hubbard produced hundreds of short stories and novels. [38]
From 1953 to 1967, L. Ron Hubbard was the official leader of the Church of Scientology. In 1954 L. Ron Hubbard gained tax-exempt status in the United States for his Scientology organizations, and lost it in 1958 when the IRS determined Hubbard and his family were profiting unreasonably from Scientology.
May 1, 2024 · L. Ron Hubbard (born March 13, 1911, Tilden, Nebraska, U.S.—died January 24, 1986, San Luis Obispo, California) was an American novelist and founder of the Church of Scientology. Hubbard grew up in Helena, Montana, and studied at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
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Scientology, international movement that emerged in the 1950s in response to the thought of L. Ron Hubbard (in full Lafayette Ronald Hubbard; b. March 13, 1911, Tilden, Nebraska, U.S.—d. January 24, 1986, San Luis Obispo, California), a writer who introduced his ideas to the general public in Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health (1950). H...
Hubbard attended George Washington University, Washington, D.C. (1930–32), but left to pursue other interests without completing his degree. He married in 1933 and settled down to a career as a writer. His writing spanned various genres—from westerns to horror and science fiction—and he was a popular contributor to pulp magazines. Hubbard had also developed an interest in exploring. In 1940 he was elected to the Explorer’s Club and during the winter of 1940–41 was awarded his licenses as a Master of Steam and Motor Vessels and Master of Sail Vessels; ships would later play a critical role in the operation of the Scientology church.
During World War II Hubbard served in naval intelligence in Australia and aboard several vessels off the U.S. coast. Hubbard ended the war as a patient at Oak Knoll Naval Hospital in Oakland, California, apparently suffering from several war-related ailments, and it was during his hospital stay that he gave systematic consideration to his earlier ruminations on the human problem. After the war he began a personal quest for a “science of the mind.” His initial conclusions appeared in The Original Thesis (1948), prior to a more mature presentation in Dianetics. These and Hubbard’s other Scientology writings, both published and unpublished, are considered scriptures by the church.
Like many thinkers before him, Hubbard believed that the basic principle of human existence is survival. Even before the publication of Dianetics, Hubbard wrote, “I suddenly realized that survival was the pin on which you could hang the rest of this with adequate and ample proof…[and] that life, all life, is trying to survive.” Actions that support survival are good and yield pleasure, he argued; countersurvival actions are destructive and perpetuate negative states. Each individual, he believed, possesses a mind that under normal conditions operates analytically to make survival-oriented judgments. However, when the mind is not fully functioning, a part of it, the reactive mind, takes over. It stores images of experiences, called engrams, which contain not only strong negative emotional content but also unrelated elements of the experience. A later encounter with these unrelated elements may bring forth negative emotional reactions from the stored engram and lead to countersurvival actions.
To help people bring engrams to their consciousness, confront them, and thereby eliminate them, Hubbard developed auditing, a one-on-one counseling process in which a counselor, or auditor, facilitates individuals’ handling of their engrams. A key aspect of this process is use of an E-meter, an instrument that measures the strength of a small electrical current that passes through the body of the person undergoing auditing. According to church teachings, E-meter readings indicate changes in emotional states that allow the identification of stored engrams. In Dianetics the goal was to rid the mind of engrams, and individuals were said to have reached a major goal when they became “clear.”
What pushed Hubbard from Dianetics to Scientology was his understanding, among other things, of the experience of “exteriorization,” the separation of individual consciousness from the body. This experience allowed him to see the spiritual self, the thetan, as the true self that can exist apart from the body. He also came to believe that thetans had inhabited other bodies before their present one, a concept not unlike that of reincarnation in Eastern religions. The new focus on the thetan led Hubbard to postulate a comprehensive vision of the cosmos that had much in common with Eastern faiths and closely resembled the western Gnostic tradition.
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Lafayette Ronald Hubbard was an American author and the founder of Scientology. A prolific writer of pulp science fiction and fantasy novels in his early career, in 1950 he authored Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health and established organizations to promote and practice Dianetics techniques.
May 8, 2017 · Learn about the origins, teachings and controversies of Scientology, the religious movement founded by L. Ron Hubbard in 1954. Explore the history of Dianetics, the E-meter, the Sea Org, the Celebrity Centre and more.
Learn about the life and achievements of L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Dianetics and Scientology. Discover his diverse fields of expertise, his spiritual journey and his legacy.
