On this thought-provoking Blog, Englishman, David Brear, guides us to the dark heart of a modern-day, totalitarian labyrinth and shines a piercing light on its manipulative rulers and manipulated inhabitants. First, he provides a spool of unbreakable thread so that we can all find our way safely home. Blog readers may contact David Brear via: axiombooks@wanadoo.fr
'Income Opportunity' racketeer, William Pinckney, arrested for fraud.
As a result of his thoughtless, and dangerous, statements in defence of the 'Amway' racket, Corporate Frauds Watch has served a legal notice on the Indian Corporate Affairs Minister, Sachin Pilot.
If these proceedings ever come to court, there are several questions which I
personally want to put to Sachin Pilot:
Why have you not called for the
establishment a common-sense definition of:
1). an authentic direct
selling company -
i.e. a corporate structure which can produce
quantifiable evidence that the bulk of its declared 'annual sales revenue' has
always derived lawfully via sales agents having regularly retailed goods, and/or
services, to the general public for a profit, based on value and
demand?
2). a fake direct selling company -
i.e. a corporate
structure which has deliberately hidden the quantifiable evidence that the bulk
of its declared 'annual sales revenue' has always derived unlawfully via a
never-ending chain of losing de facto slave recruiters regularly handing over
their money in return for effectively-unsaleable goods, and/or services, based
on the false-expectation of future reward?
Are you seriously
recommending that Indian citizens should hand over their money each month to
demonstrably fake direct sales companies like 'Amway,'and to try to recruit
everyone whom they know to do the same, as a viable means of generating extra
income?
What would be your reaction if you witnessed that a member of
your own family, or a close friend, had begun to hand over his/her money to
'Amway' each month, and was trying to recruit everyone whom he/she knows to do
the same, under the dangerous self-perpetuating delusion that this is 'a proven
plan to achieve total financial freedom?'
Sachin Pilot's reactions to the above questions, will determine if he is fit to hold office in the world's largest democracy; for what is actually at stake here, is whether American-based billionaire racketeers will be effectively placed above the criminal law and, thus, permitted to thieve from the people of the Indian republic for decades to come. That said, I strongly suspect that Sachin Pilot is just another pretty little pawn in a reality-inverting cultic game of make-believe - a fact which, for obvious reasons, he can't even begin to understand,
After the recent news that 'Enron's' former boss, Jeff Skilling, has had his 24 year prison sentence reduced to 14 year, I've been asked (presumably by a researcher working for Wall St. short-sellers) : What lessons can be drawn from the 'Enron' fraud about 'Herbalife?' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enron
If you disregard what finally happened to 'Enron,' then this multi-billion dollar fraud, and the multi-billion dollar version of the 'MLM Income opportunity' fairy story entitled, 'Herbalife', are remarkably similar, in that they both survived for many years by hiding in plain view; for right under the noses of a flock of dunces with diplomas (i.e. legally-qualified US regulators, financial journalists, politicians, economists, US law enforcement agents, etc.), the market price of shares in both these effectively-valueless corporate structures was maliciously inflated, and maintained, by the constant repetition of mystifying lies, and half-truths, and the withholding of key-information. In both cases, the narcissistic racketeers behind 'Enron' and 'Herbalife' were assisted by echelons of amoral attorneys (some of whom were former US regulators), accountants, stockbrokers, bankers, economists, academics, financial journalists, politicians, etc., and it became against the interests of almost everyone concerned (particularly, major investors) even to consider the truth in private, let alone face reality and blow the whistle in public.
A far more appropriate sub-title for this book would have been: 'The Scandalous Rise and Amazing Fall of Enron.'
We all now know that, in reality, 'Enron's' massive, and chronic, hidden trading losses were merely being off-loaded onto an expanding labyrinth comprising hundreds of legally-registered corporate structures, which (to casual observers) gave 'Enron' itself the appearance of perpetual expansion and prosperity.
Similarly, some of us have already worked out that massive, and chronic, hidden losses have been off-loaded onto an endless-chain comprising millions of ill-informed persons whose unlawful investment payments have been laundered as 'sales,' and who have been arbitrarily defined in their take-it-or-leave-it contracts as 'Independent Distributors.' Yet again (to casual observers), these crimes have given 'Herbalife' itself the appearance of perpetual expansion and prosperity. Interestingly, just as in the case of 'Enron', there are far too many intellectually-rigorous observers who now know exactly how the 'Herbalife' racket has functioned. Thus, making it an inevitability that it too will eventually collapse.
http://www.michiganliberal.com/diary/4763/ Readers of this Blog should also be aware that, in the late 1990s, the bosses of the 'Enron' racket hatched a deal with the bosses of the'Amway' racket, and the two gangs then used numerous deluded adherents of the'MLM Income Opportunity'fairy story, to commit related-frauds in California. Although briefly-reported by the media, these particular crimes have never been fully-investigated, let alone prosecuted. David Brear (copyright 2013).
From: 'The Universal Identifying Characteristics of a Cult.' Pseudo-scientific mystification. The instigators of pernicious cults seek to overwhelm their adherents emotionally and intellectually by pretending thatprogressive initiation into their own superior or superhuman knowledge (coupled with total belief in its authenticity and unconditional deference to the authority of its higher initiates) will defeat a negative or adversarial force of impurity and absolute evil, and lead to future, exclusive redemption in some form of secure Utopian existence. By makingtotal beliefa prerequisite of redemption,adherents are drawn into a closed-logic trap (i.e.failure to achieve redemption is solely the fault of the individual who didn’t believe totally). Cultic pseudo-science is always essentially the same hypnotic hocus-pocus, but it can be peddled in an infinite variety of forms and combinations (‘spiritual’,‘medical’, ‘philosophical’, ‘cosmological,’‘extraterrestrial’, ‘political’, ‘racial’,‘mathematical’, ‘economic’, ‘New-Age’, 'magical', etc.), often with impressive, made-up, technical-sounding names. It is tailored to fit the spirit of the times and to attract a broad range of persons, but especially those open to an exclusiveoffer ofsalvation (i.e. the: sick, dissatisfied, bereaved, vanquished, disillusioned, oppressed, lonely, insecure, aimless, etc.). However, at a moment of vulnerability, anyone (no matter what their: age, sex, nationality, state of mental/ physical health, level of education, etc.) can need to believe in a non-rational, cultic pseudo-science. Typically, obedient adherents are granted ego-inflating names, and/or ranks, and/or titles, whilst non-initiates are referred to using derogatory, dehumanizing terms. Although initiation can at first appearto bereasonable and benefits achievable,cultic pseudo-science gradually becomes evermore costly and mystifying. Ultimately, it is completely incomprehensible and its claimed benefits are never quantifiable. The self-righteous euphoria and relentless enthusiasm of cult proselytizers can be highly infectious and deeply misleading. They are invariably convinced thattheir own salvation also depends on saving others. (David Brear, Axiom Books, Copyright 2005) _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Once upon a time in the wonderland of 'Xango,' when modern western medical science didn't have a clue what to do
and the Angel of Death was hovering, behold there was a miracle.
Some casual observers have believed that all the absurd'MLM'propaganda (like that contained in the above 'Xango' video) is not particularly dangerous; that is, until they have compared it with quantifiable reality:
The following testimony was sent to me by Mark Davidson who, along with his brother, Harley, witnessed just how lethal total belief in an absurd Utopian 'MLM Income Opportunity' fairy story can be. David Brear (copyright 2013) ________________________________________________________________________
'Harley and I have been warning people
about Xango for years. Much like you, our experience with Xango and the whole
MLM cult mentality comes from our own personal experience via a family member,
our mother. Unfortunately the con job perpetrated by Xango and more specifically
Dr. Templeman cost my mother her life. I can honestly say that Xango and Dr.
Templeman killed my mother.
Sharon Davidson Unkefer (1940-2008) died as a result of the twin guided-delusions that modern western medical science is a scam controlled by big drug companies, and that massive doses of ($40 per bottle) 'Xango/Mangosteen Juice' can cure cancer.
In June of 2008, a CT scan revealed a growth on my
mother's spine. The doctor reviewing the scan indicated that it was more than
likely cancer and advised her to seek immediate professional help from a
qualified Oncologist. I know, I was in the room.
What my mother did instead was
contact Dr. Templeman, the self proclaimed mangosteen expert and medical
researcher who was a personal friend and a paid pitch man for Xango.
Dr. Templeman is a retired MD (Family Practitioner)
from Utah and also the father in law of the brother of one of the Xango
founders. It is Dr. Templeman's literature claiming the amazing cancer curing
Zanthones found in Xango that prompted the FDA warning letter in 2006. http://www.fda.gov/ICECI/EnforcementActions/WarningLetters/2005/ucm076067.htm
Dr.
Templeman's forte is to essential blur the lines between junk science and dubious
personal anecdotal stories with very small published scientific data. Being
neither a published researcher nor ever having spoken at any credible institutions of
health or science, the wannabe Jonas Salk routinely claims that Xango cures
cancer. The crowds he claims he has spoken to are merely attendees at Xango
corporate functions. Considering the average income for MDs in the US is around
$60,000* a year he's got a pretty good gig as a paid Xango executive flying the
globe and being treated like a rock star at luxury hotels, exotic vacation
destinations and tropical cruises.
What Dr. Templeman did upon learning of my mother's
illness was to immediately fly out to her home, again I was there, and proceed
to sell her on the notion of using an alternative health clinic and treating her
cancer with massive doses of Xango. The alternative clinic is currently under
criminal investigation. Needless to say, my mother was dead by mid August (two
short months). What I witnessed during those two months was nothing short of
criminal behaviour by a pack of greedy egomaniacs with absolutely no medical
experience in treating cancer or any serious disease. Even if you disregard the
fact that Dr. Templeman is not a trained Oncologist or even licensed by the
state of Arizona to practice medicine, the treatment she received was
abominable! The basic minimal protocols of dealing with a deadly disease like
cancer (pathology, staging diagnosis, treatment and pain management options)
were never followed! The egomaniac Dr. Templeman acted as the primary physician
and specialist and cut off all contacts with any of the doctors she was seeing.
This, in and of itself, violates the most basic of all protocols in which the
primary physician, especially Family Practitioner's, refers patients to
specialists trained in specific diseases once that disease is diagnosed.
I can speak with some authority on this subject
because in September of 2012 I was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer. I by no
means claim to be an expert, but I can tell you through personal experience and
dealing with numerous experts from Oncologists, Radiation Oncologists, Surgeons,
Technical and support staff who deal with this daily is that my mother was
cheated out of her fighting chance to beat cancer. I was constantly asking
questions and doing my own research and the bottom line is, unfortunately, the
vast majority of people "suckered" into the alternative health cures are stone
cold dead. I chose the traditional route and after both chemo, radiation and
major surgery, I am in remission. Thank God for modern medicine and shame on
those that advocate the hocus-pocus ancient Chinese secret cure for every thing
that ails you.
The false hope and phony health claims of companies
like Xango is an incredibly dangerous public health issue and is often
overshadowed by the financial woes of it's victims. MLMs like Xango are a two
sided coin that either leave you broke, dead or both.
My mother was not only the top distributor for this
company, she was one of the true believers and bought into the whole "Cancer
Conspiracy" that big drug companies and the American Cancer Society are
suppressing natural cures that companies like Xango preach at every opportunity
meeting. It's all bullshit by a gang of the most egotistical criminals, con men
and liars the world has ever seen. But then again, you know this story all too
well.
My brother and I, along with some other associates,
have done a massive amount of research on this company and their product. The
facts we have obtained would make your head spin. The amount of lies and deceit
from giving themselves phony charity awards, criminal records, sick personal
behaviour, constantly cheating the system they themselves have created and false
medical claims abound. You hit the nail on the head when you called them
cults!
A lot of
the information I have not only comes from personal experience (witnessing my
mother's involvement and 20 year roller-coaster ride of a whole slew of MLMs)
but from legal documents uncovered through personal research and a personal
lawsuit I am currently involved in.
I hope at some point there might be enough of an
outcry from the public to pass some real legislation that shut these companies
down and ban all forms of MLMs. Unfortunately, the brainwashed masses who prop
up these criminals continue to grind their way to a slow financial death with a
big phony smile plastered on their faces and a "dynamic" opportunity to share
with the world. Keep up the good work!' Mark Davidson (copyright 2013)
The American-educated, pretty-boy, politician, Sachin Pilot, is currently on an official tour of the USA where he's been playing the unconvincing role of India's intellectually, and morally, authoritative Minister for Corporate Affairs.
I don't what it is about Sachin Pilot, but he's now beginning to remind me of Tom Cruise.
'The Economic Times of India' has recently published the following report of young Sachin's latest, absurd, but nonetheless dangerous, pronouncements on the subject of 'MLM Income Opportunity' racketeering:
With an aim to segregate the genuine multi level marketing companies from those operating fraudulent ponzi schemes, the (Indian) corporate affairs and consumer affairs ministries are working on a clearer set of rules for such businesses.
"While we must take strong action against the companies that are misusing the laws and duping investors, reputed companies that are doing good work and did not violate any Indian laws should be allowed to operate without any fear. They must be given confidence," Corporate Affairs Minister Sachin Pilot told PTI in an interview here.
The Indian minister is on an official visit here. The minister's comments come against the backdrop of the recent arrest of global direct selling major Amway's India Chairman William S. Pinckney and two company directors by the Kerala Police over allegations of fraud.
While they were released later on bail, the incident has generated a debate on need for a clear set of rules for differentiating between registered companies doing genuine businesses and those duping the investors through fraudulent schemes structured like multi-level marketing operations.
"My Ministry (Corporate Affairs) and Ministry of Corporate Affairs are now working on clarifying these guidelines (for multi-level companies)," Pilot said.
Stressing on the need for protecting investors against fraudulent entities, the Minister said the newspapers also have a larger role to play as watchdogs and should not entertain paid advertisements from illegal companies.
"Sometimes newspapers publish advertisements placed by companies running illegal schemes to dupe the investors.
"The newspapers have a larger role to play in being watchdogs of investors and refuse such paid advertisements in the best interest of readers. Companies must deliver what they promise," Pilot said.
Sachin Pilot is evidently still mistaking the 'MLM' Utopianfairy story for fact, and, as I have previously pointed out, if this well-connected young fellow sincerely believes 'Amway India Enterprises' to be 'doing good work,' then he is not fit to be making the tea at the Indian Corporate Affairs Ministry, let alone running it. There are, of course various other, possible, logical explanations for Sachin Pilot's morally, and intellectually, feeble stance - most of which (if rigorously investigated and found to have been present) would land him in prison.
The mere fact that the Indian Minister for Corporate Affairs has been passing any comments on this dissimulated form of ongoing, major, organized crime (as though it is a lawful commercial enterprise),is a victory in itself for'MLM Income Opportunity' racketeers.
Despite what Sachin Pilot claims to be reality, the republic of India already has common-sense criminal legislation which seeks to protect the Indian public and punish the guilty, by identifying, and banning, all forms of closed-market swindles, or pyramid scams, no matter how cleverly these are dissimulated. Furthermore, the Indian police is tasked with independently enforcing this criminal legislation, and independent Indian courts are also there to see that that the Indian public is protected and that justice is done.
According to his latest scandalous pronouncements (made in the USA), Sachin Pilot is still attempting to remove the Independent Indian police and courts from the equation, and introduce essentially-meaningly rules and toothless civil regulators, thus, placing foreign-based billionaire racketeers, like those behind 'Amway India Enterprises,' above the criminal law in the Indian republic.
Jeffrey Skilling worked for 'Enron' for 20 years, but he was CEO for just six months, quitting 4 months before the company's collapse in 2001 when thousands of workers lost their jobs and retirement savings.
There is absolutely no doubt that Jeffrey Skilling was one of the greediest bosses of a gang of narcissistic thieves who ran one of the biggest and, most damaging, rackets in US history, but, mysteriously neither he, nor any of his criminal associates, was charged under the US federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, 1970. This legislation provides prosecutors with the power to seize all stolen assets prior to a racketeering case coming to trial, and to send those convicted under RICO to prison for 20 years per racketeering count.
The fact that the bosses of the 'Enron' racket had also sought to obstruct justice by using some their ill-gotten gains to infiltrate US politics, explains why federal prosecutors were reluctant to invoke RICO.
Classically, the 'Enron' racket was operated behind a mystifying labyrinth of legally-registered corporate structures engaged in lawful, and/or unlawful, enterprises. This labyrinth was maliciously constructed (with the assistance of an echelon of attorneys and accountants) as the result of a conspiracy to perpetrate fraud and obstruct justice. In simple terms, the value of shares in the 'Enron' company was inflated, and maintained, by off-loading chronic, and massive, trading losses onto hundreds of other insolvent companies, which gave 'Enron' the appearance ofbeing a thriving and valuable enterprise, when it was, in fact, insolvent and effectively-worthless.
When faced with exposure and collapse, insiders like Jeffrey Skilling and his predecessor, Kenneth Lay, dumped their own 'Enron' shares at the inflated price. Thus Skilling and Lay were charged with securities fraud, conspiracy, insider trading, lying to auditors, etc.
The pair were convicted in May 2006 by a jury in Houston, Texas and sentenced to long prison terms, but Lay died in July 2006 of a heart attack (after claiming that he'd become a 'Born-Again Christian').
Jeffrey Skilling
Skilling, who has been in prison since 2006, has now agreed to stop appealing against his conviction and, in return, he has had his 24 year sentence reduced to 14 years. He is now due to be set free in December 2020.
The agreement between Skilling and federal prosecutors also allows more than $40m (£26m) seized from him to be finally distributed to the victims of the 'Enron' racket.
Andrew Fastow
'Enron's' former chief financial officer, Andrew Fastow, testified against both Skilling and Lay and was sentenced to just 6 years in prison. He was released in December 2011.
'The only way to control people is to lie to them.’
‘Somebody someday will say this is illegal...’
After recently publishing an article in which I compared the author of the kitsch 'Scientology' lie, L. Ron Hubbard, to the authors of the essentially-identical, kitsch 'Amway/Nutrilite, 'Lyoness' and 'Herbalife,' lies, I have received some puerile comments from an anonymous person who systematically assumes that I cannot possibly know what I am talking about.
When the verdict was delivered on October
27th 2009, although an echelon of defence attorneys had
steadfastly pretended their clients to be
completely innocent of fraud, because
they had lots of satisfied clients as witnesses, and they had voluntarily
refunded the few dissatisfied clients, the two corporate structures and
their respective officers were duly found guilty as charged. The structures
were ordered to pay fines totalling600 000 Euros (approximately $1.1 million).
Convicted cheat, Alain Rosenberg (left)
The most-senior
officer, Alain Rosenberg, was given a two year suspended prison sentence and
personally fined 30 000 Euros, whilst three others were given suspended
prison sentences and the remaining two, personally fined lesser amounts. The
defence attorneys immediately filed an appeal and (completely ignoring the
suffering of the plaintiffs) continued to invert established-reality by
indignantly portraying their clients asthe victims of a witch-hunt.The trial Judge, Sophie-Helene Chateau, was
unable to grant the State Prosecutor’s original request for the corporate
structures to be closed down without further delay. This was due to another
unbelievable ‘mistake.’This time, a
vital section of computer text had been‘cut,
but not pasted,’ by a ham-fisted clerk drafting proposed French legislation
(enacted just before the case came to trial) which should have made it a simple
matter of procedure to dissolve any French-registered corporate structure(s)
proven to have been engaging in a chronic pattern of criminal activity.
However, it had been feared that closure of these particular structures might
very well have been counterproductive, in that the attempted prohibition of
what they were peddling could have driven this criminal activity underground.
Consequently, the lenient judgement, which still remains subject to appeal, has
been described by many well-informed commentators as ‘intelligent.’
According to the evidence which made it to court, it was in 1997, that a
33 year old Frenchwoman was approached outside the Opera metro station in Paris by a group of
friendly individuals. They had no authorization to be soliciting in the street
and did not fully-identify themselves, but they invited her to ‘agree to participate’ in(what they insisted was) a ‘Free Personality/Stress Test.’ The
woman found herself unable to refuse, but her subsequent ‘failure’ in the ‘Test’ led to her becoming convinced that she
had significantproblems which could
only be resolved through the purchase of an exclusive ‘Self-Betterment Course.’ She had, in fact, allowed herself to be subjected to devious techniques of
social, psychological and physical persuasion (designed to identify vulnerable
individuals, destabilise their self-esteem and provoke an infantile total
dependence to the detriment of themselves). In this way, the woman was given
the illusion that she was making
free-choices, but she was effectively coerced into buying a collection of
progressively more-expensive, but effectively-worthless, publications,
recordings, medicines, esoteric accessories, etc. Fortunately she was able to come
to come to her senses, but not before
she had parted with more than 20 000 Euros.
The most-outrageously
over-priced single item (approximately 4000 Euros) was a handheld gadget,
labelled ‘E-meter’ (capable of
detecting tiny fluctuations in natural, corporal electrical resistance), which contless victims of the 'Scientology' lie have been assured is part of a ‘proven
technology’for measuring and improving
the clarity and functioning of a person’s mind and body.
The gang of high-pressure charlatans whom this unwary Frenchwoman had
met, were from the Paris branch of‘The Church of Scientology
Celebrity Centre,’ostensibly
directed by Alain Rosenberg. The pseudo-scientific paraphernalia she’d bought,
was the just the start of an potentially-limitless advance fee fraud to which
certain victims have been proven to have lost amounts totalling millions of
dollars over periods spanning decades. These fraudulent materials were mostly
supplied in France via the
privately-controlled commercial company, known as ‘The Church of Scientology
Book Shop.’
Sadly, this French prosecution is just one piece of a vast and confusing
puzzle, because there are thousands more corporate structures around the globe
engaging in lawful, and/or unlawful enterprises, which comprise the pernicious
cultic organization most-commonly referred to as ‘Scientology.’These
apparently autonomous groups have
their own paramilitary hierarchy of leaders who, in reality, answer to the
organization’s supreme leadership.
When the wider picture is examined, ‘Scientology’
sub-groups are revealed as the spokes of a rimless wheel, all feeding cash (and
intelligence) back to the central hub. This vast corporate labyrinth is neither
original nor unique. The shifty ‘Scientology’edifice has been maliciously constructed to a well-known pattern in order to
prevent, and/or divert, investigation and isolate the organization’s wealthy
bosses (in the USA) from liability.
By its very nature, ‘Scientology’never presents itself in its true colours. Consequently, no one ever becomes
involved with the movement as a result of his/her fully-informed consent.
However, the setting up (and sustaining) of such a criminogenic system is
defined as a ‘pattern of ongoing, major racketeering activity’ by the US
federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act , 1970 (clarified
by subsequent US Supreme Court rulings).
Why the French authorities (who have
access to a veritable mountain of evidence stretching back decades) did not
file suit against the real bosses of‘Scientology’
in the USA under RICO, is not such a mystery when one realises the unhealthy
influence ‘Scientology’ has wielded
over certain thoughtless officials at the US State Dept and US Internal Revenue Service.
However, the bosses of ‘Scientology’are demonstrably committing fraud and obstructing justice, and are, thus, in
flagrant violation of RICO, each time theysteadfastly pretendto run the
‘World’s Fastest Growing Religion and Self-Betterment Movement, with 8 millions
followers.’In the adult world of
quantifiable reality, the best available estimates (from
democratically-accountable European government agencies) reveal that there are
currently less than 50 000 core-‘Scientologists’and that recruitment has been in steep decline for some time. Most people who
are initially seduced by‘Scientology,’
abandon the movement within a short period and without complaint. A significant
minority (usually with access to independent funds) have remained enslaved for
extended periods. It is this core-group of deluded proselytizers who perpetuate
the organization, and who are (unconsciously) both victims and perpetrators of the
abuse. Down the years, a growing number of courageous whistle-blowers have
managed to face the ego-destroying reality that they were committing all-manner
of crime by proxy, and they have faced all-manner of intimidation designed to
silence their dissent. Indeed, many have been coerced into retracting their
complaints. To date, for obvious reasons, the overwhelming majority of core-‘Scientology’survivors have remained
silent. When they first escape, former ‘Scientologists’are invariably destitute and suffering from chronic psychological deterioration
symptoms - overwhelming feelings (guilt, grief, shame, fear,
anger, embarrassment, etc.). Yet, interfering with witnesses to racketeering
who wish to cooperate with law enforcement agencies (including the filing of
malicious criminal complaints and civil lawsuits against them), is also a
violation of RICO.
Nick Xenophon
A significant, and growing, number of traumatised former core-‘Scientologists’have recently begun to come forward in Australia. Mainly, because
an Independent Senator, Nick Xenophon, has taken-up their case along with the
Australian media. Following the French trial of 2009, the Senator (who has previously
campaigned against racketeering) tabled a motion in the Australian Parliament,
requesting that an urgent public enquiry be held into alleged ‘Scientology’crimes Down-Under. These
include: fraud, embezzlement, covert intelligence-gathering and blackmail,
intimidation, forced abortion, sexual abuse, obstruction of justice,
imprisonment, assault and assassination.
One Australian couple (who were
unquestioning ‘Scientology’core-adherents for over 20 years) now accept that they were effectively coerced
into parting with more than 1 million Aus. dollars (around US$ 900 000).
The ‘Scientology’ Ministry of Truth
has falsely portrayed Senator Xenophon as a ‘Fascist’
and the Australian witnesses as ‘liars paid by the Australian media.’However, this is hardly surprising, since from its outset, ‘Scientology’ has been run as a reality-inverting totalitarian
State in microcosm, in which all free-thinking individuals, and any
quantifiable evidence, challenging the authenticity of the organization’s
imaginary scenario of control, were to be mercilessly repressed by first
systematically categorising and condemning them as absolutely evil.
At
precisely 8pm (Eastern Standard Time) on Sunday October 30th 1938,Dan Seymour made the following radio
announcement:
“
The ‘Columbia Broadcasting System’ and its affiliated stations present Orson Welles
and the ‘Mercury Theatre on the Air’ in ‘The
War of the Worlds’ by H.G. Wells…. Ladies and Gentleman the Director of the
Mercury Theatre’, and star of these broadcasts, Orson Welles.”
Although
the show that followed ended within an hour, the effect it had on broadcasting
endures to this day.
We will never know for certain if L. Ron Hubbard was
listening to ‘Mercury Theatre on the Air’ on the evening of October 30th 1938. Although the programme would have been available to
the future creator of the ‘Scientology’ mythvia one of CBS’s affiliated stations,
the likelihood is that he was far too busy to be bothered with the radio. It
would, however, seem inconceivable that Hubbard remained unaware of the effect
caused by Orson Welles’ production of ‘The
War of the Worlds’, or of its wider implications.
In
the Autumn of 1938, Hubbard was just 27 years old and living, with his first
wife and their two infant children, in the small coastal community of South
Colby near to the Bremerton Naval Base, Washington State. By all accounts, he
was up to his eyeballs in a sea of mounting debts. Hubbard had recently taken
out a loan to buy a small house and he was behind with his taxes. However, he
was not only struggling to keep afloat financially, but also mentally and
physically. His main source of income depended on pounding-out lurid adventure
stories for pulp-magazines.
The year before, Hubbard had completed a novel set in
the wild-west, entitled ‘Buckskin
Brigades.’ For this, he had negotiated an advance of $ 2 500
from a New York publisher, but (ignoring his debts) he’d bought a 30 foot ketch. Like numerous other aspiring authors,
Hubbard had been drawn to the pulp genre because it was by far the easiest form
of professional writing to enter.
‘Penny Dreadfuls’, ‘Shilling Shockers’, or
‘Dime Novels’, had been popular with schoolboys since the 19th
century. During the ‘Depression’ demand for escapist pulp-stories boomed. Once
you understood the simplisticgood-guys
versus bad guysformula, virtually anyone could produce a pulp-story. All
that was required was to take any existing yarn and rewrite it using different
narrators, names, locations, historical periods, etc. Most pulp writers were
white males, and their readers were mainly white male teenagers. There were
pulp heroes for most tastes:Cowboys; Indian Scouts; Detectives; Secret
Agents; Knights of Old; Pirates; Spacemen; Scientists; Airmen; Soldiers;
Sailors; Explorers; Sportsmen;etc. One thing that they had in common, was
they all inhabited essentially the same two-dimensional dream world where good
endlessly wrestled with evil, and boring things like bosses, babies, mortgages
and taxes did not exist.
As
1938 came to a close, Hubbard’s narcissistic fantasies veered into disturbing
waters. On a visit to New York City, he began pretending that he’d written his first philosophical book,
‘Excalibur,’ … this was going ‘to
have a greater impact on people than the Bible’…itwas founded on his own ‘advancement of the
theories of Darwin and Freud,’… all human behaviour was ‘based on the instinct
to survive.’
At
this time, Hubbard wrote a letter to his first wife, in which he stated:
‘…on the strength of the contents of Excalibur, I am
going to go into politics and smash my name so violently into history that it
will take on a legendary form.’
Almost
10 years later, Hubbard had abandoned his first family, but he was still
faithful to his claimto have written
‘Excalibur’ or ‘The Dark Sword.’ He now pretended that the contents of his great book had come to him when he had temporarily
died on an operating table during WWII. According to numerous witnesses
(including fellow writer, Sam Moskowitz), in 1949, Hubbard spoke to a
science-fiction group in Newark, New Jersey, and stated:
‘Writing
for a penny a word is ridiculous; if a man really wanted to make a million
dollars, the best way to do it would be to start his own religion.’
Tellingly,
by the time of his death,‘Excalibur’remained unpublished, but, although he pretendednot to have earned any money for years, Hubbard had secretly
acquired control of a vast fortune, estimated (by the US Internal Revenue
Service) to be in excess of $600 millions. Sure enough, Hubbard had instigated
a movement which he arbitrarily defined as a ‘religion.’His fortune (much of which was hidden in overseas
bank-accounts) derived from his exploiting people’s unconscious acceptance a
wholly-imaginary, but nonetheless emotionally and intellectually overwhelming,
narrative as total reality.
Fundamental to this fraud, was a never-ending series of over-priced books about
Hubbard’s life and achievements.
However, the authorized versionof L. Ron Hubbard’s visit to planet Earth
(which all core-adherents of the ‘Scientology’myth have been obliged to accept as fact)
reads as though it was patched together from yarns selected at random from his
days and nights as a manic writer of pulp-fiction. There is a very good reason
for this - it was:
The founder of the ‘Church of Scientology’ was born in the ‘Wild
West’. He was a descendant of the ‘Count de Loupe’ (‘a companion of William the
Conqueror’). His maternal great-grandfather and grandfather were ‘Captains:
I.C. DeWolfe and LafayetteWaterbury’ (two of ‘America’s greatest naval heroes’).
The infant L. Ron Hubbard lived on a 35 000 square mile ranch with his
paternal grandfather (‘a multi-millionaire, Montana Cattle-Baron’)… As an
adolescent (when he wasn't with his Blackfoot Indian, Medicine-Man mentor, ‘Old
Tom’,becoming an expert ‘rider, hunter
and explorer, blood-brother of the Blackfoot tribe’and the ‘youngest ever American Eagle
Scout’), Hubbard was an intellectual prodigy studying most of the world’s
greatest authors and developing an interest in ‘religion and philosophy.’ Aged
12, Hubbard was sent to Washington where he was schooled by
‘Commander Snake Thompson’ (a ‘friend of his wealthy grandfather’ and ‘close
associate of Sigmund Freud’). From 1925 to 1929, Hubbard was a ‘lone teen-age
wanderer in China, India, Tibet and the Pacific’… absorbing
the ‘culture and wisdom of the Orient’ (financed by his wealthy grandfather).
In the early 1930s, Hubbard established himself at GeorgeWashingtonUniversity as a ‘brilliant academic
and sportsman’… a ‘dare-devil pilot and parachutist, renowned explorer,
navigator and adventurer’… a ‘pioneering geologist, nuclear physicist, rocket
scientist, philosopher, engineer and mathematician.’ When his wealthy
grandfather died, he was cruelly disinherited and forced to ‘turn to writing
science-fiction to finance his scientific research.’ In the late 1930s, Hubbard
was a ‘renowned essayist,’ ‘best-selling novelist’ and ‘major Hollywood scriptwriter’… an
‘influential member of American artistic, and scientific, associations.’ During
WW II, he was a fearless warrior (the ‘most-decorated officer in the US
Navy with 28 medals collected in every theatre of operations’)… a national hero
(the ‘first American serviceman wounded in the Pacific, before Pearl Harbour’) who was ‘blinded and crippled saving the crews of his various ships’… a
miraculous survivor, who ‘used the power of his mind to restore his own sight,
and who twice defied the medical profession to return from the dead.’ After
WW II, Hubbard became an ‘agent of US Naval Intelligence’ sent to
‘infiltrate and destroy a satanic Cult in California.’ He then became the
‘world's leading nuclear physicist’… a genius in all fields of literary,
philosophical, artistic and scientific, endeavour… a man who (working alone)
advanced the work of ‘Aristotle, Socrates, Voltaire, Decartes, Freud, Darwin
and Einstein’… he’d acquired his ‘secret wisdom in heaven during his two
near-death experiences.’ In 1950, Hubbard published ‘Dianetics the Modern
Science of Mental Health’ and became a medical-Messiah and revolutionary
‘psychiatric therapist.’ This was the first in a series of important
‘scientific/spiritual’ publications, in which Hubbard explained a ‘universal
method to improve people’s looks, increase their intelligence and cure all
known human illnesses (including ageing, and the common cold).’ These books led
to Hubbard founding the ‘Church of Scientology’ in 1954. During the
McCarthy era, Hubbard was a ‘fearless anti-Communist’ and ‘American patriot.’
In the 1960s, he was forced to take to the high-seas to save his ‘secret
research material’ from an army of ‘Soviet spies and double agents’ (including
his wife, and numerous former associates)… an innocent victim of the ‘Communist
plot to take over the world’… a man pursued all over the globe by the FBI, the
CIA, British intelligence services, French intelligence services, etc., all as
a result of a conspiracy lies orchestrated by the medical profession (and
particularly psychiatrists), who were, in fact, the secret agents of an ‘evil
extraterrestrial ruler, Xenu, who wants to destroy planet Earth’. Finally,
Hubbard revealed that he’d ‘discovered the truth about the nature of
existence,’ his human body was only a temporary container for his ‘immortal
soul,’ he was really a ‘time-travelling extraterrestrial’ (the ‘saviour of
galaxies’), who keeps coming back to Earth to save humanity from destruction.
The
above represents only a sample of the web of lies and half-truths which Hubbard
threw up around himself. Even without access to all the evidence, it’s not that
difficult to deduce that the man’s own version of his life and achievements is childish drivel. It is now generally
accepted by qualified observers that, as a young man, Hubbard developed severe
and inflexible Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD). This psychological
term was first used in 1971 by Dr. Heinz Kohut (1913-1981). NPD was recognised
as the name for a form of pathological narcissism in ‘The Diagnostic and
Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 1980.’
Narcissistic traits (where a
person talks highly of himself/herself to eliminate feelings of worthlessness)
are common in, and considered ‘normal’ to, human psychological development.
When these traits become accentuated by a failure of the social environment and
persist into adulthood, they can intensify to the level of a severe mental
disorder. Severe and inflexible NPDis
thought to effect less than 1% of the general adult population. It occurs more
frequently in men than women. In simple terms, NPD is reality-denying, total
self-worship born of its sufferers’ unconscious belief that they are flawed in a way that makes them
fundamentally unacceptable to others.In order to shield themselves from
the intolerablerejection and isolation which they unconsciously believe would follow if others recognised theirdefective nature,NPD sufferers go to
almost any lengths to control others’ view of, and behaviour towards, them. NPD
sufferers often choose partners, and raise children, who exhibit
‘co-narcissism’ (a co-dependent personality disorder like co-alcoholism).
Co-narcissists organize themselves around the needs of others (to whom they
feel responsible), they accept blame easily, are eager to please, defer to
others’ opinions and fear being seen as selfish
if they act assertively. NPD was observed, and apparently well-understood, in
ancient times. Self-evidently, the term, ‘narcissism,’ comes from the
allegorical myth of Narcissus,the beautiful Greek youth who falls in love
with his own reflection.Currently, NPD has nine recognised diagnostic
criteria (five of which are required for a diagnosis):
·has a grandiose sense of
self-importance.
·is preoccupied with
fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, ideal love, etc.
·believes that he/she is
special and unique and can only be understood by other special people.
·requires excessive admiration.
·strong sense of
self-entitlement.
·takes advantage of others to
achieve his/her own ends.
·lacks empathy.
·is often envious or believes
that others are envious of him/her.
There
have been many attempts to diagnose Hubbard’s exact mental disorder during the
later part of his life. One of the best-informed, was made by a senior
psychiatrist, cult expert, charter member of the ‘American Family Foundation’
and mental-health advisor to the US Government, the late Dr. Louis Jolyon West
(UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute). He first encountered Hubbard in the 1950s,
and then monitored his activities with increasing alarm. Finally, in the 1980s,
Dr. West (who kept his sense of humour) described Hubbard as:
‘a
paranoid Commander-in-Chief leading his forces in a war against the rest of the
world, because, like Adolf Hitler, he is an atheist who suffers from
psychopathic personality.’
(Dr. West was in rather a good position to be the
judge of someone who could act the roles of a prophet and military
commander, one of his closest friends was the Hollywood actor, Charlton Heston).
Despite
Hubbard (and his successor’s) extraordinary efforts to maintain an absolute
monopoly of information, there is probably more evidence available about the
ugly reality behind the Utopian ‘Scientology’ myth, than any other
latter-day cultic group.
In 1987, Russell Miller, published ‘Bare-Faced
Messiah’, ‘The True Story of L. Ron. Hubbard’ (Henry Holt & Co. New York).
In the face of typically relentless threats from ‘Scientology’s’aggressive echelon of shyster attorneys, Miller (an
experienced and independent journalist from London) spent many months tracking
down the truth about Hubbard, before producing a definitive account of his
existence from the cradle to the crematorium.
Miller discovered that, in
January 1980, a long-time core-adherent of ‘Scientology,’
Gerald Armstrong, had already been given permission by Hubbard himself to
research and write exactly the same book.
By this stage Hubbard (aged 69) was
so deluded and stuffed full of nicotine, alcohol and prescription drugs, that
he actually believed his own private
archive of manuscripts, photographs, diaries, etc. would corroborate the
authorized version ofhis visit to
planet Earth.What Armstrong actually uncovered, led to his being
arbitrarily charged by the‘Leadership of
Scientology’ with ‘18 Crimes and High Crimes against the Church of Scientology.’ He was systematically categorized as
a ‘Suppressive Person’ who was ‘Fair Game’ to be ‘Tricked, Cheated, Lied to,
Sued or Destroyed by any Scientologist.’However, Armstrong now knew that, during the 1960s, Hubbard had
sustained his activities by imposing arbitrary codes and contracts (loyalty,secrecy, justice, punishment,etc.)in order to repress any
internal and external dissent.
Gerald
Armstrong fled ‘Scientology,’ in fear
of his life. Russell Miller quotes him as stating:
“By
then, the whole thing for me had crumbled. I realized that I’d been drawn into Scientology by a web of lies, by Machiavellian
mental control techniques and by fear. The betrayal of trust began with
Hubbard’s lies about himself. His life was a continuing pattern of fraudulent
business practises, tax evasion, flight from creditors and hiding from the
law.’ … ‘He was a mixture of Adolf Hitler, Charlie Chaplin and Baron Münchhausen . In short, he was a
con man.”
In
1983, the leadership of‘Scientology’ launched a malicious
prosecution against Gerald Armstrong (in which they posed asinnocent victims under attack) to recover 250 000
pages of documentation about L. Ron. Hubbard. A number of courageous, former ‘Scientology’core-adherents were
located by Armstrong’s attorney to act as defence witnesses. In May 1984, Judge
Paul G. Breckenridge (Los Angeles Superior Court) decided in favour of
Armstrong and delivered the following verdict on ‘Scientology’:
'The
organization is clearly schizophrenic and paranoid, and this bizarre
combination seems to be a reflection of its founder. The evidence portrays a
man who has been virtually a pathological liar when it comes to his history,
background and achievement. The writings and documents in evidence additionally
reflect his egoism, greed, avarice, lust for power, and vindictiveness and
aggressiveness against persons perceived by him to be disloyal or hostile.’
As an infant, Ron Hubbard lived amongst his mother’s family in Helena City, Montana. His happy disposition, flame red hair and green eyes (coupled with the fact that he was the only-child in a large group of loving adults) made him the focus of attention. By all accounts, the Waterbury family treated him like a little prince. When America entered WWI in 1917, ‘Harry’ Hubbard (who was trying to avoid his many creditors) went back into the Navy and served as an Ordinary Seaman. After the war, May Hubbard gave up her teaching career, and, along with young Ron, lived in the home-ports of her husband’s various ships (San Diego, New York, San Francisco and Seattle). During this period, the adolescent Hubbard joined the Boy Scouts and he acquired the habit of keeping a journal.
In 1923, Ron and May Hubbard travelled on a warship from Seattle (via the Panama Canal) to the NE coast of the USA. They were en route for WashingtonDC, where ‘Harry’ Hubbard (now promoted to junior grade Lieutenant) was attending a land-based training course. Ron spent 4 months in Washington, and (in connection with his Boy Scout activities) he seems to have visited the White House where he shook the hand of president Calvin Coolidge.
In 1924, ‘Harry’ Hubbard was posted to Bremerton Naval dockyard in the Pacific NW near to Seattle. Ron attended a local high-school and continued to pass his spare time in the Boy Scout movement.
In 1927, ‘Harry’ Hubbard (now a full Lieutenant) was posted to the US Naval Station on the island of Guam in the Western Pacific. Ron (aged 16) was allowed to travel there with his parents before returning (alone) to live with his grandparents and 7 aunts in HelenaCity. During his 6 week trip he briefly visited ports in Hawaii, Japan, China and the Philippines. At this time, his journal was filled with fantasies about ‘spies and gangsters,’ written in the first person from a contemporary racist point of view (‘Chinks’;‘Gooks’; ‘Wogs’, ‘Coolies’, etc.). When Hubbard got home, he attended high-school in HelenaCity. He lied about his age to enlist in the Montana National Guard. Photos from this period reveal that he had the appearance of a much older man.
In 1928, Hubbard ran away from his aunts and grandparents. He arrived at the US Naval base in San Diego. After an interchange of telegrams, he was allowed to rejoin his parents on Guam. In the same year, he took a trip (along with his parents and a group of US Naval personnel) and visited Peking and Hong Kong. Whilst still on Guam, his father decided that Ron should attend the US National Naval Academy at Annapolis, but he failed the entrance exam.
The Hubbard family returned to live in WashingtonDC in 1929. Ron was sent to the ‘SwavelyPreparatory School,’ Manassas, Virginia. He was persuaded to make a further attempt to enter the ‘NationalNavalAcademy’. He was now rejected as short-sighted.
A year later, Hubbard (aged 19) was attending ‘WoodwardBoysSchool,’ WashingtonDC. He again lied about his age, and enlisted in the US Marine Corps Reserve. He was subsequently made a First Sergeant. Later in 1930, he was accepted into the School of Engineering at GeorgeWashingtonUniversity. Hubbard spent two years majoring in civil engineering, but there is no evidence to prove that he attended class. His grades were dreadful. He spent most of his time as a reporter writing for the University’s weekly newspaper, the ‘Hatchet’ (a reference to George Washington’s boyhood cherry-tree chopping escapade). Hubbard also developed a passion for the new sport of gliding.
In 1931, Hubbard took a holiday in the State of Michigan with a college friend. He was taught to fly a light aircraft. Although he subsequently made numerous applications, Hubbard never passed his pilot’s licence. A story then appeared in a Ohio newspaper, referring to ‘Ron Flash Hubbard,dare-devil speed-pilot and parachute artist.’
In 1933, Hubbard (aged 22) returned to WashingtonDC and made pregnant, and married, Margaret Louise (‘Polly’) Grubb (b. 1907), a farmer’s daughter from Maryland. The couple rented a house in Maryland. When their unborn baby was lost, Hubbard was struggling to make a living writing articles about flying. A tale then appeared in the ‘Washington Daily News,’ in which ‘RonHubbard, a local adventurer,’ had returned from a ‘gold-prospecting trip in Puerto Rico to get married,’ and had ‘struck gold in Maryland.’ Soon, Polly Hubbard was pregnant again, but the couple were down to their last dollar. Hubbard was forced to discover his niche in life - pulp magazines. He first read as many of them as he could find (to absorb their formulaic style), and then he sent approximately 50 stereotypical pulp-stories (written in the first person) to various publications in New York city. He immediately started to earn decent money. Hubbard’s first customers included: ‘Popular Detective’; ‘Thrilling Detective’; ‘Phantom Detective’; ‘Thrilling Adventures’, etc. Shortly after the birth of his first child, Lafayette Ronald Jnr., Ron Hubbard travelled to New York. He paid a $10 subscription and joined the ‘American Fiction Guild.’
Hubbard became a father for the second time in 1936. His daughter was christened Catherine. The couple and their two children moved to South Colby, because Hubbard’s parents had recently retired there. (‘Harry’ Hubbard had achieved the rank of Lieutenant Commander in 1934).
In 1938,on a visit to New York City, Hubbard began pretending that he’d written his first philosophical book, ‘Excalibur,’ … this was going ‘to have a greater impact on people than the Bible’…it was founded on his own ‘advancement of the theories of Darwin and Freud,’… all human behaviour was ‘based on the instinct to survive.’At this time, Hubbard wrote a letter to his first wife, in which he stated:
‘…on the strength of the contents of Excalibur, I am going to go into politics and smash my name so violently into history that it will take on a legendary form.’
Years later, Hubbard told his literary agent, Forry Ackerman, that people who had read ‘Excalibur’ had either gone mad or committed suicide. He also claimed that whilst visiting his New York publisher’s office (in a sky-scraper), a reader had come in with a copy of Excalibur and promptly jumped out of the window.Hubbard’s publisher was John W. Campbell Jnr., an intellectual, New York-based science-fiction author and editor, who later discovered some notable science-fiction authors, including Isaac Azimov and Robert Heinlein.
When Hubbard met Campbell in 1939, he was publishing a new magazine called ‘Astounding,’ later re-titled ‘Astounding Science-Fiction.’ Hubbard’s first yarn for Campbell’s magazine was the ‘Dangerous Dimension,’ which revolved around ‘teleportation.’ This, like all Hubbard’s plots, were stereotypical of the pulp genre — goodies versus baddies , written in the first person and set in outer-space. For a while, Hubbard abandoned science-fiction and ‘philosophy,’ and began writing ‘cowboy’ yarns for ‘Western Story’ magazine. With the outbreak of WW II in Europe, he rented a small apartment in Manhattan.
In 1940, Hubbard (aged 29) was granted membership of the prestigious ‘Explorers Club of New York.’ He wangled this, after pretending that he had supplied valuable data to the US Navy Hydrographic Office and the University of Michigan, during his expedition to the Caribbean in 1932, and that he had conducted a mineralogical survey of Puerto Rico in 1933, and had made various survey flights in the USA during the 1930s.Unfortunately, no one at the club verified Hubbard’s application. He immediately began styling himself as ‘Captain’and he gave his address as the Explorers Club, East 70th Street, New York City. Later, in 1940, Hubbard published a series of science-fiction stories, culminating in a futuristic novel called‘Final Blackout.’In this, he described Britain, taken-over by a military dictatorship and then saved by a coup d’etat sponsored by the USA. Accusations followed that Hubbard was either a Fascist or Communist. At about this time, he started writing malicious letters to the FBI. In one, he denounced a hotel porter (who’d insulted him) as a ‘Nazi spy.’ Hubbard then disappeared from New York, and, along with his wife, sailed his ketch to Alaska, flying the flag of the Explorers Club and claiming that he was ‘leading the Alaskan Experimental Radio Expedition 1940 — checking data for the US Navy Hydrographic Office and the US Coast, and Geodetic, Survey.’ The ‘Magician’ was loaded with expensive equipment supplied for free by various US instrument manufacturers. They had all been fooled by the counterfeit ‘Captain’ with the authentic Explorers Club address. When Hubbard arrived in the town of Ketchican, his boat’s engine was broken, but he managed to free-load in Alaska by duping the owner of the only radio station. Hubbard was allowed virtually to take-over the Alaskan airwaves with a series of talks and interviews abouthis long life as an adventurer, explorer, scientist, pilot and best-selling author.
Ignoring a stack of new debts acquired in Alaska, Hubbard returned to his home in South Colby. Throughout the Spring of 1941, he hatched a plot to get himself commissioned into the US Naval Reserve. Spinning a web of typical Narcissistic fantasies about his qualifications and achievements, Hubbard persuaded various influential figures to support him; including his Congressman. He finally falsified a referencefrom Washington's Senator, Robert M. Ford, who had given him a signed letterhead.
Hubbard was duly commissioned as junior grade Lieutenant in July 1941. He first worked in Navy Press Relations, and then he was assigned to train as an Intelligence Officer. In December 1941 (after PearlHarbour), Hubbard was posted to the Philippines. He got as far as Australia, but, at the start of 1942, he was sent back to the USA and branded ‘a self-important troublemaker’ by his superiors. He also left a stack of further unpaid debts. Whilst training at a Submarine-ChaserCenter in Florida, Hubbard began to pretend that he had received flash burns to his eyes when he was the Gunnery Officer on a destroyer, and bullet wounds in the back when serving as a commando behind Japanese lines.
In the Spring of 1943, Hubbard was posted to Portland, Oregon, and appointed Commanding Officer of the USS PC-815 (a brand-new, 280-ton, submarine-chaser). A tale then appeared in the ‘Oregon Journal’, in which Hubbard was falsely described as ‘a veteran sub-hunter of the battles of the Pacific and Atlantic, who had commanded 3 important scientific expeditions before the war.’ On the evening of the 18th. May 1943, PC-815 put to sea from Astoria, Oregon, on a training voyage to San Diego - 5 hours later, Hubbard ordered his young crew to battle-stations. He proceeded to attack (what he later claimed to be)‘at least two Japanese mine-laying submarines.’ For 68 hours, Hubbard continued his imaginary‘battle;’ PC-815 dropped 100 depth-charges and fired several thousands 20 mm machine-gun rounds. Eventually, 4 other US ships attended the scene. Despite Hubbard’s 18 page report of the ‘incident’(which graphically described ‘periscope sightings’ and ‘oil rising to the surface’),an official enquiry decided that Hubbard had ‘probably attacked a magnetic deposit.’ Amazingly, Hubbard kept his command. At the end of May 1943, PC-815 was again ordered South to San Diego. On 28th. June 1943, Hubbard allowed his ship to stray into Mexican territorial waters where a number of 3 inch shells were fired from in the vicinity of the Coronados islands. As a result Hubbard was relieved of his command and branded as ‘below average… lacking in the essential qualities of judgement, leadership and co-operation’… etc. He then spent 3 months in hospital in San Diego, pretending to be suffering from ‘malaria, back-pain and a duodenal ulcer.’ Meanwhile, he informed his family that he had ‘been wounded whilst throwing an unexploded shell over the side of a ship.’
In 1944, after briefly serving aboard the USS Algol (a newly constructed, cargo/assault ship), Hubbard (aged 33) again managed to avoid active service in the Pacific. He was sent (at his own request) on a course in ‘Military government’ at the ‘NavalTraining School, Princeton.’ Whilst there, he was invited by Robert Heinlein, to join a group of science-fiction authors. They had been asked by the US Navy to put forward ideas for dealing with the problem of Japanese suicide attacks. Detailed intelligence was made available to this group describing the belief system controlling the minds, and actions, of the young Kamikaze pilots. No solution was found.
Jack Parsons
During the final year of WW II, Hubbard returned to a land-based naval post in California and reportedsick. In August 1945, he took leave and visited a Bohemian commune installed in a mansion in nearby Pasedena. This was owned by an (outwardly respectable) research chemist and explosives expert, John (‘Jack’) Whiteside Parsons (1914-1952). Whilst studying at the University of Southern California in the 1930s, Parsons had learnt how to induce hypnosis. He had also become attracted to the works of Aleister Crowley a.k.a.the‘Beast 666’. Parsons contacted Crowley, who immediately arranged for him to be initiated into ‘OTO’ (‘Ordo Templi Orientis’ or ‘Order of the Eastern Temple’), his ‘Satanic/Sex-Magic’ cult (formerly known as ‘Thelema’). When Parsons inherited his father’s mansion, he used it to create his own little kingdom based on ‘Crowleyanity’(a belief system which rejected all traditional moral codes and permitted its adherents do anything they pleased). Parsons constructed a‘SecretTemple’ in his private apartment (where he performed ‘Satanic/Sex-Magic’rituals), and he began collecting all sorts of weird and wonderful people (out-of-work actors, actresses, dancers, writers, mind-readers, etc.) by renting rooms and throwing wild parties. Hubbard identified Parsons as a egomaniac, who was living in a drug-fuelled fantasy world. He stayed at the mansion for several weeks and discovered that Parson’s was sending money to Crowley. However, both Hubbard and Parsons were apparently unaware that Crowley was an undischarged bankrupt and heroine addict, living in squalor in a boarding house on the South coast of England.
At the end of the war, Hubbard was admitted to a Military hospital in Oakland, California, suffering from ‘a suspected duodenal ulcer.’He stayed there for 3 months before leaving the Navy in December 1945. Along with several hundred thousand fellow sailors, Hubbard was automatically awarded 4 General-Service medals. He immediately applied for a Disabled Veteran’s Pension, on the grounds that he couldn’t go back to work as a ‘$ 650 per month author,’ or keep his wife and children, because of‘a duodenal ulcer, arthritis, back pain, malaria, conjunctivitis and a sprained knee.’ (Hubbard was subsequently granted an $ 11. 50 a month Disability Pension from the Veterans Association).Instead of returning to his home in Oregon, Hubbard abandoned his wife and children and returned to Pasadena. He stayed with Parsons for several months during the Spring of 1946. Hubbard now pretended that he was ‘psychic,’ and he borrowed money from several of Parsons’ house guests.
Sara Northrup
Hubbard also profited from Parsons’ claims to believe in Crowley’s doctrine of total sexual freedom and rejection of the unworthy, human emotions of love, jealousy, etc. He began frequenting the bed of his host’s attractive, young girlfriend, Sara Elizabeth Northrup.
Parsons left extensive documentary evidence describing Hubbard’s second visit. He compiled a‘Secret Magical Record,’ and his letters to and from Crowley still exist. According to this material, Crowley recognised Hubbard as a dangerous manipulator. However, Hubbard quickly convinced Parsons that he (Hubbard) was in touch with a form of ‘Higher Intelligence’, possibly a ‘Guardian Angel.’ The pair then decided to perform a‘Sex-Magic Experiment.’They were going to create ‘a Magical Moonchild, an Anti-Christ, Mightier than all the Kings of the Earth.’ In January 1946,Parsons began searching for a woman, the ‘Whore of Babylon,’ to bear this child. He found a willing volunteer, Majorie Cameron, and took her into the desert to perform a series of ritual copulations assisted by Hubbard who took notes. At this time, Hubbard persuaded Parsons to finance a ‘business partnership’ known as ‘Allied Enterprises.’ Hubbard then disappeared taking $ 10 000 of Parsons’ money and Sara Northrup. The couple went to Florida, borrowed more money from a bank, and bought two second-hand schooners and a yacht. At first, Parsons refused to believe that ‘Brother Ron’would cheat him, but, eventually, he filed suit and took possession of the schooners. Hubbard was forced to sell the remaining yacht to pay-off his bank loan. After managing to increase his Disability Pension, Hubbard married Sara Northrup, but whilst he was still legally married to his first wife, Polly. During the second half of 1946, the bigamous couple lived in S. California. They then moved to New York where Hubbard started to sell stories to a pulp-magazine editor, Sam Merwin. It was at this time, that Hubbard began to boast that ‘the easiest way to become rich is to start a cult.’
In 1947, Hubbard (aged 36) returned to writing stories for John Campbell Jnr. Whilst living in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, he produced a novel ‘The End Is Not Yet,’about a physicist who saves the world by discovering a ‘new philosophical system.’ The book was later serialised in ‘Astounding Science-Fiction.’ Hubbard then briefly returned to South Colby and divorced his legal wife. She was given custody of their children. He was ordered to pay her $ 25 a month. Hubbard simply ignored this and immediately left for Hollywood to live in a trailer with Sara. He began to tell his new literary agent that he (Hubbard) had twice died on an operating table during the war..… Whilst in Heaven, he’d been given the answers to all the world’s most important philosophical questions.… He had then used the power of his mind to resurrect himself, and he had spent 48 hours without sleep transcribing his heavenly wisdom into a book entitled ‘Excalibur,’ or ‘The Dark Sword.’… When he had given copies of this work to Publishers, several readers had committed suicide.… He had been forced to lock it away in a bank vault. At about this time, Hubbard started writing letters to the Veterans Association requesting psychiatric treatment.
In 1948, Hubbard was granted $ 55.20 a month disability pension. He then became involved with the ‘Los Angeles Fantasy and Science-Fiction Society.’ As a well-known author in the genre, Hubbard was a regular speaker at its meetings. He began to demonstrate that he could put people under hypnosis and make them hallucinate. Later in 1948, Hubbard was arrested by the Forgery Detail of the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Office. He was charged with petty theft concerning a cheque. At the hearing, Hubbard protested his innocence and was bailed on $ 500. At his trial, he entered a guilty plea and was fined $ 25.
Hubbard moved to Bayhead, New Jersey in 1949. He continued to write for pulp-magazines, but rumours began to circulate in science-fiction circles that Hubbard was about to ‘publish a book on philosophy.’ John W. Campbell Jnr. put an announcement in ‘Astounding Science Fiction’ that Hubbard was preparing an article concerning a ‘New Science, Dianetics'. However, Hubbard spoke to a science-fiction group in Newark, New Jersey, and stated:
‘…writing for a penny a word is ridiculous; if a man really wanted to make a million dollars, the best way to do it would be to start his own religion.’
Hubbard soon found his first adherent — his publisher.
John Campbell had trained in physics and chemistry, and he had become fascinated by the possibility of a rational explanation for psychic phenomena. Believing that that Hubbard was pursuing a‘Research Project,’ Campbell allowed himself to be put him under hypnosis to see if this might help his chronic sinusitis. When he seemed to have been cured, Campbell became totally convinced thatHubbard really had discovered a cure-all therapy.Typically, Campbell’s own self-esteem would not allow him to face the ego-destroying reality that he’d been duped. He temporarily became an enthusiastic proselytizer for‘Dianetics.’ Campbell contacted one of his authors, Dr. Joseph Winter (a medical practitioner), and asked him to help with Hubbard’s ‘Research Project.’Hubbard immediately pulled the same hypnotic trick on Winter. Although sceptical at first, Winter wrote an academic paper on ‘Dianetics’ and presented it to the ‘Journal of the American Medical Association’ and the ‘American Journal of Psychiatry.’ This was rejected by both publications (neither Hubbard nor Winter could supply quantifiable evidence to support their puerile claims). However, Dr. Winter wrote an introduction for Hubbard’s pulp-article. Campbell then found a medically unqualified publisher of medical, and psychiatric, textbooks, Art Ceppos, who agreed to publish a textbook on ‘Dianetics.’
By 1950, rumours about a ‘New Science’ had spilled over into the popular press. Campbell then published an announcement stating that a 16 000 word article by L. Ron. Hubbard, entitled ‘Dianetics — An Introduction to a New Science,’ would be published in the May edition of ‘Astounding Science fiction.’ At about the same time, the ‘Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation’ was created in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Its board of Directors were: Ron and Sara Hubbard; John W. Campbell jnr.; Dr. Joseph Winter; Art Ceppos; Parker C. Morgan (a lawyer); and Donald Rogers (an electrical engineer). Winter sold his medical practise in Michigan, and began to support Hubbard’s ‘Research.’ The ‘Foundation’ rented an office in Elizabeth, and the Hubbard family (complete with a new-born daughter, Alexis) moved into a nearby house. A forty page articlewas duly published in ‘Astounding Science Fiction.’ This was immediately followed, on the 9 May 1950, by the release of ‘Dianetics, The Modern Science of Mental Health,’published by Hermitage House at $ 4.00.
With ‘Dianetics,’Hubbard plagiarized Freudian psychoanalysis. He simply rewrote Freud’s theory of ‘the conscious, and the unconscious, mind’ using his own comic-book pseudo-scientific vocabulary. Hubbardpretending that ‘using Dianetics, in 250 test cases out of 250, a dramatic, and beneficial, change had been achieved.’ He also borrowed ‘Darwin’s Theory of Evolution’ to maintain the aura of scientific authenticity.
In brief, Hubbard’s scenario was that evolution had created a self-defence mechanism for humans, where the ‘Analytical (i.e. conscious) Mind’ shut itself down under emotional stress, and the ‘Reactive (i.e. unconscious) Mind’ automatically took-over by filing-away negative information in memory-banks, or ‘Engrams.’ In his ‘NewTherapy,’ a qualified ‘Auditor’ could find these ‘Engrams’ neutralise them by regressing the subject’s ‘Reactive Mind’ under a form of ‘deep-relaxation’ (i.e. hypnosis). By ‘Returning Down the Time-Track’, ‘Engrams’ could be selected, removed and re-filed in the subject’s ‘Analytical Mind’ where they could be rationalised, and where they couldn't cause any harm. However, these ‘Engrams’ often originated from stressful episodes experienced before the subject was born. In these cases, subjects had to ‘Return Down the Time-Track’ to the moment of their birth, and even to the womb. Once the ‘Reactive Mind’ was ‘Cleared’ of ‘Engrams,’ the ‘Analytical Mind’ could function at its ‘Full Capacity.’ The ‘Clear’ subject's IQ would increase, all psychological, and psychosomatic, illness would automatically disappear and the ‘Clear’ subject would achieve total recall.Hubbard tailored his ‘Dianetics’scenario to fit a post-war America already destabilised by the prospect of nuclear war. Many people were easily attracted to his do-it-yourself ‘100 % effective’ version of psychoanalysis.
Almost immediately, numerous qualified observers recognised Hubbard as a dangerous charlatan, and they published their detailed concerns. However, the critics of ‘Dianetics’found themselves bombarded with an avalanche of letters from Hubbard’s most-deluded followers, who were all totally convinced that they had benefited from‘Auditing.’ Many were previously rational individuals, who occupied influential positions in traditional society. However, it must be remembered that Hubbard must have read, and analysed, the works of Aleister Crowley. He knew from his experience with Jack Parsons that humans instinctively tried to justify their previous actions. Unfortunately, all the quantifiable evidence proves that 'Dianetics, the Modern Science of Mental Health'was designed to be so mystifying that it would shut-down an ill-informed reader's critical faculties and facilitate their conversion to the further self-gratifying false belief that they had found an exclusive path toa future Utopian existence.Interestingly, there are passages in the book which instruct so-called ‘Dianeticists’ how to induce a hypnotic trance, and then how to extract compromising personal information from subjects.
In May 1950, for a fee of $ 500, individuals were offered‘a residential course to train as a Qualified, Professional, Dianetics Auditor.’ (No one was refused). They were offered their very-own ‘Hubbard Dianetic Auditor's Certificate’to hang on the wall (just like a real doctor).In reality, members of the public were being deceived into becoming, unpaid proselytizers and intelligence-gatherings for Hubbard. So-called ‘Auditors’ were instructed to write down the results of their 2 hour ‘Auditing Sessions’ and file these with the ‘Foundation’onthe pretext thatthis was ‘part of Hubbard's Research Project'.Consequently, a steady stream of money and compromising information began to flow in Hubbard’s direction. After a few weeks, he was inundated with thousands of volunteer ‘Auditors’along with their $ 500 cheques.
By July 1950, 300 so-called‘Dianetics groups’had started all over the USA, and 55 000 copies of Hubbard’s fiction had been sold as fact. By August, the‘Foundation’had agreed to purchase a $ 4.5 millions mansion in Los Angeles, and had opened offices in WashingtonDC, New York, Chicago and the Hawaiian Islands. Hubbard acted the role of‘Chief Lecturer’in Los Angeles, where he acquired a new girlfriend, Barbara Kaye (aged 20) an attractive, blond psychology student employed by the‘Foundation’ as‘public relations consultant.’ Hubbard began addressing open-meetings of several thousand paying customers, but these were soon abandoned, because he found that he couldn’t control the agenda. At this time (according to Barbara Kaye), Hubbard started to exhibit paranoia. He believed that he was being ‘followed, and targeted, by CIA assassins.’
The first people to confront reality within the‘Foundation’ were Dr. Joseph Winter, and Art Ceppos. As Directors, they were aware that over $ 1 million had come into the organisation, but there was absolutely no control on expenditure. Hubbard was busy cashing cheques for tens of thousands of dollars, but the‘Foundation’ had already become insolvent with outstanding debts of over $ 200 000. More seriously, numerous so-called 'Pre-Clears'had experienced severe, mental breakdowns (at least two were known to have become psychotic). Winter and Ceppos realised that Hubbard wasn't in slightest bit interested in the adverse results of his activities, his sole objective was making money. They resigned from the ‘Foundation.’ Hubbard immediately spread a rumour that he'd caught the pair plotting to take control.He wrote a malicious letter to the FBI, and accused Ceppos of being a‘Communist sympathiser, who had tried to use the Dianetic Research Foundation to spread Communist propaganda'.
Free from the restraining influence of Dr. Winter, Hubbard invented an even more-dangerous pseudo-medical procedure— a cocktail of Benzedrine and vitaminsto be taken in large doses every two hours over a period of one day.He christened this nonsense, 'GUK'. Hubbard claimed that 'Pre-Clears could take GUK, and Audit themselves'. Hundreds of fanatical 'Dianeticists'volunteered to act as guinea-pigs. This led to a detailed article in 'Look Magazine', which branded 'Dianetics'as total 'hocus-pocus'. However, by then, Hubbard had fooled an estimated 500 000 people into handing over $ 4 for one of his comic books.
At the beginning of 1951, the New Jersey Medical authorities began legal proceedings against 'The Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation'in Elizabeth, on the grounds that it 'taught medicine without a licence'.
During the spring of 1951, Hubbard fell-out with his wife, Sara. and John W. Campbell also resigned from the ‘Foundation'. After denouncing Sara to J. Edgar Hoover as a‘Communist and drug addict', Hubbard kidnapped his own baby daughter, Alexis. The FBI granted Hubbard an interview in Los Angeles, 7th. March 1951, in which he denounced his wife again, and claimed thatthe Soviets were ‘interested in Dianetics'.The Federal Agent who conducted this interview, decided that Hubbard was a ‘mental case'. Hubbard took Alexis, and ran away to Havana with his personal assistant, Richard de Mille (son of film director Cecil B. de Mille). He stayed there for two months whilst Sara filed for divorce in Los Angeles. She accused her husband of: 'bigamy; kidnapping; systematic torture; sleep deprivation; beatings; attempted strangulation's and scientific experiments'. The divorce complaint also contained the opinion of Sara's medical advisers that 'Hubbard suffered from paranoid schizophrenia'. This was splashed all over the American press. Hubbard wrote to his wife from Havana. He now imagined himselfto be a ‘classified scientist under the protection of the US government'.Sara filed a further complaint in Los Angeles. She presented another letter to the court written by Hubbard's ex-wife, who stated the following:
'Your charges probably sound fantastic to the average person, but I've been through it — the beatings, threats on my life, all the sadistic traits which you charge — twelve years of it'.
Meanwhile, Hubbard's 'Foundation' was rapidly going bankrupt, and 'Dianetics'was no longer the flavour of the month. Hubbard was forced to appeal to Donald Purcell (a millionaire property-developer and one of his most deluded followers) for help. Hubbard now pretended that 'he was dying'. Purcell sent a private plane to Cuba and flew Hubbard, de Mille and Alexis to his home-town of Wichita, Kansas. This was openly reported in the local press. A new branch of the‘Foundation’ was set-up in Wichita using Purcell's money whilst Hubbard free-loaded in a local hotel suite. Sara's attorney filed a petition asking for Hubbard's Los Angeles assets to be placed in receivership. On the 14th. May 1951, Hubbard sent a 7 page document to the Department of Justice in Washington. In this, he revealed his surprisingly detailed knowledge of Soviet, brainwashing techniques. Hubbard accused his wife of: having been brainwashed by Communist agents… trying to murder him… living in a free-love colony in Pasadena… attaching herself to a rocket scientist, Jack Parsons… being intimate with several scientists working on the secret atomic bomb project… trying to steal his 'Dianetics' secrets for the Communists. The FBI stuck to their original opinion of Hubbard as a 'mental case'. However, in return for custody of Alexis, Sara withdrew all her petitions in June 1951. She also signed a document retracting her allegations against Hubbard and agreed to a divorce as thoughshe had been at fault.
