Charles L Westbrook

Lafayette Ronald Hubbard, born in 1911, began his literary career as a prolific writer of science fiction and fantasy for pulp magazines, producing hundreds of stories and novels. He also explored aviation and traveled extensively in his youth. After serving in the Navy during World War II, Hubbard sought psychiatric help and began developing the principles that would lead to Dianetics. He authored Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health in 1950, establishing organizations to promote its techniques. Following financial and legal issues related to Dianetics, Hubbard founded Scientology in 1952, leading the organization until his death in 1986. His later life involved periods at sea and seclusion, marked by legal troubles and government investigations.

Lafayette Ronald Hubbard was born in 1911 and spent his childhood moving due to his father's Navy career, traveling to Asia and the South Pacific. He attended George Washington University but dropped out. Hubbard established himself as a prolific pulp fiction writer from the mid-1930s to 1940, contributing across various genres including adventure, aviation, and science fiction. His early novel, Buckskin Brigades, was published in 1937. A reported near-death experience following a dental procedure in 1938 inspired him to write a manuscript titled Excalibur, which he believed would make him famous. He found significant success publishing short stories and novelettes in magazines edited by John W. Campbell.

After serving in the Navy during World War II, Hubbard received psychiatric treatment and began developing what became Dianetics. In 1950, he published Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, a pseudoscientific book that gained significant popularity. He established organizations to promote Dianetics practices. However, after losing intellectual property rights in bankruptcy, Hubbard founded Scientology in 1952. The first Scientology organizations were established in 1953, with a prominent church founded in Los Angeles in 1954. Hubbard incorporated organizational management, pedagogy, communication theory, and health strategies into Scientology's teachings.

As Scientology faced increasing scrutiny and legal challenges in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Hubbard spent time at sea commanding the Sea Organization. He returned to the U.S. in 1975 and lived in seclusion. In 1978, he was convicted of fraud in absentia by France, and high-ranking Scientology members were indicted for the Snow White Program, an espionage operation against the U.S. government. Hubbard was named an unindicted co-conspirator. He spent his final years in seclusion. Following his death in 1986, Scientology leaders announced he had "dropped his body" to continue his work. Many of his autobiographical claims have been disputed, and he has been described by sociologists as potentially having malignant narcissism.

“Sooner or later Excalibur will be published... I have high hopes of smashing my name into history so violently that it will take a legendary form even if all books are destroyed. That goal is the real goal as far as I am concerned.”