Life of L. Ron Hubbard from 1953 to 1967

In 1956, Hubbard released Fundamentals of Thought, which teaches that life is a game no matter what, and that the basic variable is the degree to which the individual knows what games they are playing and the degree to which they can knowingly come up with new ones. The following year, Hubbard published All About Radiation, which falsely claimed that radiation poisoning and even cancer can be cured by vitamins. In 1958, inspired the success of Bridey Murphy, Hubbard authored Have You Lived Before This Life?, a collection of past life regressions.^[20]

In 1958, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service withdrew the Washington, D.C., Church of Scientology's tax exemption after it found that Hubbard and his family were profiting unreasonably from Scientology's ostensibly non-profit income.^[1] Nibs Hubbard testified that in 1958, his father asked him to devise a plan for stealing an 'H-bomb'.^[21]

In the spring of 1959, he purchased Saint Hill Manor, an 18th-century English country house formerly owned by the Maharaja of Jaipur. The house became Hubbard's permanent residence and an international training center for Scientologists.^[22] In 1959, while Hubbard was in Melbourne, he learned his son Nibs had resigned from the organization, citing financial difficulties, and planned to seek full-time employment elsewhere. Hubbard regarded the departure as a betrayal.^[23] Hubbard introduced "security checking",^[9] a structured interrogation using the e-meter, to identify those he termed "potential trouble sources" and "suppressive persons". Members of the Church of Scientology were interrogated with the aid of E-meters and were asked questions such as "Have you ever practiced homosexuality?" and "Have you ever had unkind thoughts about L. Ron Hubbard?"^[24] For a time, Scientologists were even interrogated about crimes committed in past lives: "Have you ever destroyed a culture?" "Did you come to Earth for evil purposes?" "Have you ever zapped anyone?"^[25]

Hubbard marketed Dianetics and Scientology through medical claims. On January 4, 1963, Food and Drug Administration agents raided offices of the Church of Scientology, seizing over a hundred E-meters as illegal medical devices, thousands of pills being marketed as "radiation cures", and tons of literature that they accused of making false medical claims.^[26] Although the original suit by the FDA to condemn the literature and E-meters ultimately did not succeed, the Church of Scientology was required to label e-meters as being "ineffective in the diagnosis or treatment of disease".^[27][28]

In November 1963 Victoria, Australia, government opened an Inquiry into the Church, which stood was accused of brainwashing, blackmail, extortion and damaging the mental health of its members.^{[29] [30]} Its report, published in October 1965, condemned every aspect of Scientology and Hubbard himself. He was described as being of doubtful sanity, having a persecution complex and displaying strong indications of paranoid schizophrenia with delusions of grandeur. His writings were characterized as nonsensical, abounding in "self-glorification and grandiosity, replete with histrionics and hysterical, incontinent outbursts".^[31] The report led to Scientology being banned in Victoria,^[32] Western Australia and South Australia,^[33] and led to more negative publicity around the world. Public perceptions of Scientology change from " relatively harmless, if cranky" to an "evil, dangerous" group that performs hypnosis and brainwashing.^[29] Scientology attracted increasingly unfavorable publicity across the English-speaking world.^[34]

In 1965, he designated several existing Scientology courses as confidential, repackaging them as the first of the esoteric "OT levels".^[35]

Hubbard took three major new initiatives in the face of these challenges. By 1965, "Ethics Technology" was introduced to tighten internal discipline within Scientology. It required Scientologists to "disconnect" from any organization or individual—including family members—deemed to be disruptive or "suppressive".^[36] Scientologists were also required to write "Knowledge Reports" on each other, reporting transgressions or misapplications of Scientology methods. Hubbard promulgated a long list of punishable "Misdemeanors", "Crimes", and "High Crimes".^[37] At the start of March 1966, Hubbard created the Guardian's Office (GO), a new agency within the Church of Scientology that was headed by his wife Mary Sue.^[38] It dealt with Scientology's external affairs, including public relations, legal actions and the gathering of intelligence on perceived threats.^[39] As Scientology faced increasingly negative media attention, the GO retaliated with hundreds of writs for libel and slander; it issued more than forty on a single day.^[40] Hubbard ordered his staff to find "lurid, blood sex crime actual evidence [sic] on [Scientology's] attackers".^[41] The "fair game" policy was codified in 1967, which was applicable to anyone deemed an "enemy" of Scientology: "May be deprived of property or injured by any means by any Scientologist without any discipline of the Scientologist. May be tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed."^[42][43]

In 1966, Hubbard declared South African Scientologist John McMaster to be the first true Clear.^[44][45] He became a leading public spokesman for Scientology. He left in November 1969.^[46]

External videos
L. Ron Hubbard Interview in Rhodesia, May 1966

Newspapers and politicians in the UK pressed the British government for action against Scientology. In April 1966, hoping to form a remote "safe haven" for Scientology, Hubbard traveled to the southern African country Rhodesia (today Zimbabwe) and looked into setting up a base there at a hotel on Lake Kariba. Despite his attempts to curry favour with the local government—he personally delivered champagne to Prime Minister Ian Smith's house, but Smith refused to see him—Rhodesia promptly refused to renew Hubbard's visa, compelling him to leave the country.^{[47]: 80–81} Finally, at the end of 1966, Hubbard acquired his own fleet of three ships.^[48]

In July 1968, the British Minister of Health, Kenneth Robinson, announced that foreign Scientologists would no longer be permitted to enter the UK and Hubbard himself was excluded from the country as an "undesirable alien".^[49] Further inquiries were launched in Canada, New Zealand and South Africa.^[33]

• Atack, Jon (1990). A Piece of Blue Sky: Scientology, Dianetics and L. Ron Hubbard Exposed. Lyle Stuart Books. ISBN 081840499X. OL 9429654M.
• Barrett, David V. (2001). The New Believers: A Survey of Sects, Cults and Alternative Religions. London: Cassell and Co. ISBN 978-0304355921. OL 3999281M.
• Bigliardi, Stefano (2016). "New Religious Movements, Technology, and Science: The Conceptualization of the E-Meter in Scientology Teachings". Zygon. 51 (3): 661–683. doi:10.1111/zygo.12281.
• Evans, Christopher. Cults of Unreason. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1974. ISBN 0-374-13324-7, OCLC 863421
• Lewis, James R. (2009a). "Introduction". In Lewis, James R. (ed.). Scientology. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 3–14. ISBN 978-0-19-5331-49-3.
• Melton, J. Gordon. Encyclopedic handbook of cults in America. Taylor & Francis; 1992. ISBN 978-0-8153-1140-9
• Melton, Gordon (March 19, 2009). Lewis, James R. (ed.). Scientology. New York/Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-1953-3149-3. Retrieved November 23, 2020.
• Miller, Russell (1987). Bare-faced Messiah : The True Story of L. Ron Hubbard. Henry Holt and Company. ISBN 0805006540. OCLC 17481843. OL 26305813M.
• Streissguth, Thomas (1995). Charismatic cult leaders. The Oliver Press. ISBN 978-1-881508-18-2. OCLC 30892074.
• Thomas, Aled (2021). Free Zone Scientology: Contesting the Boundaries of a New Religion. London: Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-1-350-18254-7.
• Urban, Hugh B. (2011). The Church of Scientology: A History of a New Religion. Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691146089.
• Wallis, Roy (1977). The Road to Total Freedom: A Sociological Analysis of Scientology. Columbia University Press. ISBN 0231042000. OL 4596322M.