Let's Sell These People a Piece of Blue Sky: Hubbard, Dianetics and Scientology (14 page)

During one ... session Ron began to relate some of his own
adventures. He had been in the United States Marines for seven years, he had
been an explorer on the upper Amazon for four years, he’d been a white hunter
in Africa for three years ... after listening for a couple of hours, I said,
“Ron, you’re eighty-four years old, aren’t you?” He let out a yelp, “What the
hell are you talking about? You know I’m only twenty-six.”

Hubbard was actually 23. Gruber had been taking notes
throughout:

“Well, you were in the Marines seven years, you were a civil
engineer for six years, you spent four years in Brazil, three in Africa, you
barn-stormed with your own flying circus for six years ... I’ve just added up
all the years you did this and that and it comes to eighty-four years...” Ron
blew his stack.

Gruber added: “I will say this, his extremely vivid
imagination earned him a fortune, some years later.”

His Church claims that in 1935, “LRH went to Hollywood and
worked under motion picture contracts as a scriptwriter on numerous films
making an outstanding reputation there with many highly successful films.”
²⁴
The date is a little cloudy, other Scientology accounts say 1936 or 1937.
²⁵

Shortly after Gerry Armstrong started working on the Hubbard
biographical Archive, he was told that the film
Dive Bomber
, a 1941
Warner Brothers film release,
²⁶
allegedly written by Hubbard, was to
be shown to raise money for the legal defense of 11 indicted Scientology staff
members.
²⁷
Armstrong started researching the background of the film
in February 1980:

I obtained a copy of the short story [Dive Bomber]
which Mr. Hubbard had written and had been produced in a pulp magazine in, I
believe, 1936 ... I read through the story and then I went to the Academy of
the Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences here in Los Angeles ... and I obtained a
copy ... of the screen play or, at least, a synopsis or a treatment. And I
realized that the two were completely different.

And I also saw that Mr. Hubbard’s name was not noted
in the credits. And I believe there were a couple of writers noted ... I
checked their names against other records ... and confirmed that they couldn’t
have been him because they were writing on several other movies which he could
not possibly have been involved with. So they weren’t pseudonyms he was using.

Armstrong was in a quandary: “It would have been
embarrassing if someone had said, ‘where is your name’ and his name wasn’t on
it. People had paid money. So I thought perhaps I could come up with something
else that could be a substitute ... I wrote to Mr. Hubbard and let him know
what I had found to date ... he didn’t answer me. But he sent down a dispatch.”

Hubbard’s dispatch, dated February 11, 1980, was sent to the
organizer of the showing. It was read into the Court record, in the Armstrong
case.
²⁸
Hubbard claimed that Warner Brothers had forgotten to put
his name on the movie, and had paid him after distribution. He had not cashed
the check until the end of the war, when he used the money for a trip to the
Caribbean. Hubbard’s most noteworthy work during his brief time in Hollywood
was the co-authorship of a 15 part serial called
The Secret of Treasure
Island
. He was, however, a successful pulp writer. Many of his stories were
published during the 1930s. Among his pseudonyms were Rene Lafayette,
Legionnaire 148, Lieutenant Scott Morgan, Morgan de Wolf, Michael de Wolf,
Michael Keith, Kurt von Rachen, Captain Charles Gordon, Legionnaire 14830,
Elron, Bernard Hubbel, Captain B.A. Northrup, Joe Blitz, and Winchester
Remington Colt.
²⁹

Only his remarkable writing output enabled Hubbard to make a
living in those “penny-a-word” days. He wrote a number of “true stories,” two
of which concerned his alleged experiences in the French Foreign Legion. His
first hard-covered book,
Buckskin Brigades
, was published in 1937.

According to Hubbard, his first philosophical breakthrough
came in 1938, with the discovery that the primary law of all existence is
“Survive!”
³⁰
The somewhat tautological notion that everything that
exists is trying to survive became the basis of Dianetics and Scientology.

In 1939, Hubbard detailed his supposed insights in a book
called
Excalibur
.
³¹
Hubbard’s hints about
Excalibur
are the source of several Scientology myths. It is whispered that the entirety
of Scientology was available in the book, but in such a concentrated form that
many people would go mad if they read it. The book has never been published.

In an early Scientology promotional piece, it was claimed
that 15 copies of
Excalibur
were distributed, but four of the people who
read the book went mad as a result, so the manuscript was withdrawn.
³²

Gerald Armstrong found three different manuscripts of
Excalibur
among Hubbard’s personal effects, one of which was between 300-400 pages long.
³³
Later, someone who had seen a version of
Excalibur
said it was so
“dangerous” he would “willingly let his four year old daughter read it.”

Writer A.E. van Vogt, an important figure in the early
Dianetic movement, has said that Hubbard claimed his heart had stopped for six
minutes during an operation, in 1938.
³⁴
Excalibur
was the
result of the revelation Hubbard had during this near death experience.
Armstrong has said it was a dental extraction under nitrous oxide.
³⁵
Hubbard told his literary agent that a “smorgasbord” of knowledge had been laid
out before him. He had absorbed it all, and managed to avoid the command to
forget, which was the last part of the incident.
Excalibur
is an expansion
of Hubbard’s argument that “Survive!” is the basic law of existence. Hubbard’s
friend and fellow writer, Arthur Burks, saw the book when it was offered to
publishers in New York in the summer of 1938. He was impressed, but could not
manage to instill his enthusiasm into a publisher. Burks later hinted that he
put up money for the book to be published, but that Hubbard returned to Port
Orchard in the autumn, dejected that he had failed to find a proper publisher,
taking Burks’ money with him.
³⁶

Hubbard often claimed that the only people who understood
the value of his research in 1938 were the Russians. In an interview given in
1964, he said that the Russians had offered him $100,000 and laboratory
facilities he needed in the USSR, so that he could complete his work. After
Hubbard refused, a copy of
Excalibur
was stolen from his hotel room in
Miami.
³⁷
Hubbard made no mention of these supposed events when
complaining to the FBI about approaches from the Russians in 1951.
³⁸

In 1938, Hubbard became a science-fiction writer, claiming
he was “summoned”
³⁹
by the publishing firm of Street & Smith,
and to write for
Astounding Science Fiction
. Hubbard protested that he
wrote about people, not machines, and was told that this was precisely what was
needed.
⁴⁰

Hubbard joined editor John Campbell’s circle of friends, and
became a major contributor to the reshaping of science-fiction which Campbell
brought about. Campbell was also to figure in the birth of Dianetics, 12 years
later.
⁴¹
Recently this pre-war period has been dubbed the Golden Age
of Science Fiction. Hubbard’s work appeared alongside that of Robert Heinlien,
A.E. van Vogt, and Isaac Asimov, each of whom has stated his admiration for
Hubbard’s stories.
⁴²
Although Hubbard’s writing was patchy in
places, he certainly had a very inventive imagination. He became a regular
contributor to
Astounding
, moving back to New York in the autumn of
1939.

Hubbard’s interest in the occult continued, and for six
months in 1940, he belonged to the Ancient and Mystical Order Rosae Crucis
(AMORC). He completed the first two “neophyte” degrees (probably by mail)
before his membership lapsed on July 5, 1940.
⁴³

In February 1940, Hubbard was accepted as a member of the Explorers’
Club of New York (though one Scientology account says 1936
⁴⁴
).
According to his book
Mission into Time
, Hubbard was awarded the
Explorers’ Club Flag in May 1940, for an expedition to Alaska aboard his ketch,
the Magician. Hubbard called this trip the Alaskan Radio Experimental
Expedition. Another Scientology account claims the expedition was undertaken
for the US Government.
⁴⁵

Hubbard seems to have been trying out a new system of radio
navigation developed by the Cape Cod Instrument Company. At least the
Scientologists provide documentation to that effect.
⁴⁶
The
“expedition” seems to have consisted of Hubbard and his first wife, Polly,
aboard the 32-foot Magician. Some film was sent gratuitously to the US Navy
Hydrographic Office.
⁴⁷
As ever, we are faced with a germ of truth embedded
in Hubbard’s exaggeration. The habit of a lifetime.

In a letter sent to the
Seattle Star
in November
1940, Hubbard complained that his Alaskan trip had been greatly delayed by
frequent failures of the boat's motor.
⁴⁸
Repairs had been expensive,
and Hubbard and his wife were stranded in Ketchikan while he tried to write and
sell enough stories to bail them out. Eventually he borrowed $265 from the Bank
of Alaska,
⁴⁹
a debt he blithely forgot as soon he departed.
⁵⁰

Hubbard was apparently an accomplished sailor, receiving a
License to Master of Steam and Motor Vessels in December 1940,
⁵¹
and
a License to Master of Sail Vessels (any Ocean), in May 1941.
⁵²

In 1938, Hubbard had failed to secure a place in the Air
Corps
⁵³
and in 1939 the US War Department turned him down.
⁵⁴
By the spring of 1941, Hubbard was living in New York, and waging an all-out
campaign for a commission in the US Naval Reserve with assignment to
intelligence duties.
⁵⁵

Hubbard pursued this objective by coaxing his friends to
write letters of reference to the US Navy. In March, Jimmy Britton of KGBU
radio in Alaska wrote to the Secretary of the Navy, claiming that during a “ten
month” stay in Alaska, Hubbard had been “instrumental in bringing to justice a
German saboteur who had devised it to be in his power to cut off Alaska from
communication with the US in time of war.” Hubbard does not seem to have
mentioned this episode himself, and it is highly likely that Britton heard the
story from Hubbard. Britton said Hubbard had spent ten months in Alaska.
Hubbard, in a letter to the
Seattle Star
written in 1940, said he had
been in Alaska from July to November. The time had been doubled, and Hubbard's
heroics had probably been doubled too.

There was a letter from Commander W.E. McCain, of the US
Navy which stated: “I have found him to be of excellent character, honest,
ambitious and always very anxious to improve himself to better himself and
become a more useful citizen.” A letter written in April 1941, by Warren
Magnuson of the House of Representatives to President Roosevelt said: “An
interesting trait is his distaste for personal publicity. He is both discreet
and resourceful as his record should indicate.”

A letter, allegedly from a professor at George Washington
University, explained that Hubbard's “average grades in engineering were due to
the obvious fact that he had started in the wrong career. They do not reflect
his great ability.”

In May came a letter from Robert Ford, also of the House of
Representatives, who recommended Hubbard as, “one of the most brilliant men I
have ever known ... discreet, loyal, honest.” Ford says that he and Hubbard
were close friends at the time, and admits that he probably gave Hubbard some
of his note-paper and told him to write whatever he liked.
⁵⁶

Lastly, a letter from the editor of
Astounding Science
Fiction
, John Campbell, who confined himself mainly to praise of Hubbard's
ability to turn in a story on time, but added: “In personal relationships, I
have the highest opinion of him as a thoroughly American gentleman.”

Hubbard stepped up his campaign after he was rejected by the
US Navy Reserve in April. His eyesight was inadequate. However, with the
expansion of the armed forces due to the growing US commitment to the European
war, Hubbard's poor eyesight was waived, and he achieved his goal. In July
1941, five months before the attack on Pearl Harbor, the US Navy finally
yielded to Hubbard's entreaties, and gave him a commission in the Reserve.

1.
   
Hubbard,
Mission into Time,
p.7.

2.
   
“Field
Staff Member”
magazine, vol.1, no.1, 1968;
college records; “A Report to Members of Parliament on Scientology”, 1968;
Washington Daily News
13 September 1932.

3.
   
Hubbard,
Mission into Time,
p.7.

4.
   
The
University Hatchet,
vol.28, no.33, 24 May 1932.

5.
   
see 4;
The Sun
, Baltimore, 18 June 1932.

6.
   
The Washington
Daily News,
13 September 1932
.

7.
   
see 6 & 4; letter from Bentley Historical Library
to Michael Linn Shannon, 4 December 1979;
Hubbard, Mission into Time,
p.7.

8.
   
Hubbard, Adventure magazine vol.93, no.5, 1 October 1935, “The
Camp-Fire”.