Secret mission to expose L. Ron Hubbard as a fake

[emad]

Times


The founder of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard, was exposed as a fraud 30 years ago by British diplomats who were investigating his qualifications.

The science-fiction writer, who invented a religion now followed by celebrities such as Tom Cruise, awarded himself a PhD from a sham “diploma mill” college that he had acquired, the diplomats found.

Such was the climate of fear and paranoia surrounding Scientology that the US believed the sect had sent bogus doctors to declare a high-ranking legal investigator mad and then taken his papers relating to the case.

Scientologists threatened to sue the British Government for libel after it acted in 1968 to ban followers from entering the country to visit the sect’s world headquarters in East Grinstead, West Sussex.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6740831.ece

[Indydem]

1. Wow. Shock, surprise, astonishment...

Not.

[emad]

2. Telegraph coverage:

SNIP:
The documents show Britain was not alone in probing Scientology. The dossier of evidence, gathered during the 1970s, included the extraordinary claim by an American official that the sect had sent bogus doctors to hypnotise a legal investigator and declare him ‘mentally ill’ to thwart his inquiries into their activities.
.............................................

A further telegram of evidence, dated May 18, 1977 and written by Louis Sherbourne, of the British Consulate-General in Los Angeles, said: "We have now come up against the usual brick wall of missing files and silence, each and every person and organisation treading very warily for fear of a libel or slander action."

Mr Sherbourne added: "United States Internal Revenue Services tried hard to obtain firmer evidence but appear to have failed. A recent attempt to resurrect the enquiry resulted in all the papers from 1939 to 1963 being sent to Sacramento to the office of the State Attorney General.

"By 'an amazing coincidence' the Deputy Attorney General dealing with them was taken ill and after seeing some 'doctors' was retired 'due to his mental health'. My very incensed informant in the California Department of Education is convinced that the 'doctors' were scientologists who hypnotised him into mental ill-health and he feels very bitter but can do nothing about it."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/5981457/Britains-secret-mission-to-expose-Scientology-leader-as-fraud.html

[Teaser]

3. is any exposure necessary?

I mean, the man was pretty open about wanting to establish a for-profit religion. I give him props on that, if nothing else.

[MNDemNY]

4. "invented" religion, is there any other kind??????

:shrug:

[charlie]

5. Probably won't make a difference

It seems once a religion is rooted and faith in faith takes hold, no unsavory revelations or even sheer dingbattery will dislodge it. Hell, the Millerites sold all their shit and went to the mountaintops twice, and all they did was fragment into Seventh Day Adventists and Jehovah's Witnesses, both of whom went on to make a crapload of failed end-of-the-world predictions themselves. If the History Channel rebranded itself as the Joseph Smith Was a Lying Goofball Channel, think it'd matter a whit in Salt Lake City? Get enough Scientologists sick of Hubbard and they'll just turn their jackets inside out and call themselves Cruisologists.

[Beaverhausen]

6. How about Joseph Smith? And for that matter, "God"

Not any one is any more legit than any other.

[phantom power]

7. A science fiction author who starts a religion with aliens requires exposure?

[hootinholler]

8. The rumor I heard is

He started it to win a bet with Azimov.

-Hoot

[Mosby]

11. most versions of that rumor

involve a bet with Philip Dick or Heinlein.

Back in 47 or 48 he was at a convention in Newark, during a lunch with Theodore Sturgeon and John Campbell he said something about starting a religion because that's where the money is. That is probably where this rumor started.

[gordianot]

9. Fakes, religion, gosh how often does that happen?

L Ron Hubbard was a pretty good Science Fiction writer that got carried away.

[ironbark]

10. Now have a look at his Naval record

http://www.lermanet.com/L_Ron_Hubbard/

Sent back from Australia, the Naval Attache Melbourne had found Hubbard "unsatisfactory for any assignment"….so the USN puts him in charge of USS PC 815 and Ron promptly engages two enemy subs (read “magnetic field”) off the coast of Florida….and then proceeds into Mexican territorial waters and fires on that nations fishermen.

[piratefish08]

12. ALL religions are simple to "expose". The missing ingredient is the requirement that

we think for ourselves.

Sadly, most of society is unwilling to do just that.

The willful ignorance of the "believers" is the most important requirement of any religion.

:shrug: