Early life of L. Ron Hubbard
Encyclopedia
The early life of L. Ron Hubbard covers the period from his birth on March 13, 1911 to the beginning of his career as a writer of pulp fiction
stories in the early 1930s.
L. Ron Hubbard
was the founder of Dianetics
and Scientology
. Born in Tilden, Nebraska
in March 1911, Hubbard grew up with his family in Helena, Montana
. He was unusually well-traveled for a young man of his time, due to his father's frequent relocations in connection with his service in the United States Navy
. He lived in a number of locations in the United States and traveled to Guam
in the South Pacific
, the Philippines
, China
and Japan
. He is said to have "roamed the Orient picking up ancient wisdom, philosophy and knowledge along the way from various wise men", though Hubbard's unofficial biographers – and his own journal – present a considerably different picture of events. He enrolled at George Washington University
to study civil engineering but dropped out in his second year. While at GWU, he organized an exhibition to the Caribbean for fellow students that looms large in his official biography but was a flop according to contemporary accounts. He subsequently spent a while on Puerto Rico
panning for gold before returning to the United States, marrying his pregnant girlfriend and embarking on a career as a "penny-a-word" writer.
The Church of Scientology
depicts Hubbard in hagiographic
terms and draws on his legacy as its ultimate source of doctrine and legitimacy. The Danish historian of religions Dorthe Refslund Christensen notes that many aspects of the official version of Hubbard's early life parallel more conventional religious biographies, notably the life of Jesus
. Many details of Hubbard's early life remain disputed between the Church and its critics, who cast doubt on whether he had the educational and personal background claimed for him by the Church.
Hubbard portrayed himself as a pioneering explorer, world traveler and nuclear physicist. By contrast, his critics have characterized him as a liar, a charlatan and a madman, and many of his autobiographical statements have been proven to be fictitious. The Church's portrayal of Hubbard's life displays many standard features of hagiography, such as the emphasis on the continuity of the subject's life. Events are woven together in a seamless tapestry that culminates in the subject's achievement of his spiritual goals. They are presented as part of a "master plan" that gives meaning to the subject's life in the context of a belief system. By doing this, the belief system is legitimized and given an aspect of genuineness through stressing its originator's personal qualities.
Hubbard is therefore portrayed (as he put it himself) as a man who "knew exactly where I was going" from the age of three. He is presented as a person who constantly worked towards a single objective. Each event in his life is seen as a stepping stone along the way to the development of Dianetics and Scientology. He is shown as being a singular and forward-thinking individual whose unique qualities and knowledge are essential prerequisites for his discoveries. As the Church puts it, "even in his early youth he exemplified a rare sense of purpose and dedication which, combined with his adventurous spirit, made him a living legend." The story of Hubbard's early life, as told by the Church, is closely related to Scientology's own self-image as a synthesis of Western scientific precision with Eastern philosophy. His claimed knowledge of these fields and practices underlines his claim to have founded a religion combines the best of both to appeal to all human beings on the planet.
, the family settled in 1913 in the state capital, Helena. Hubbard's father worked as a manager and bookkeeper, first for a local theater and later for a coal company owned by his father-in-law, Lafayette "Lafe" O. Waterbury, from whom L. Ron Hubbard got his first name. The elder Hubbard re-enlisted in the Navy when the United States entered World War I in April 1917, while his mother Ledora May worked as a clerk for the state government.
Some early Scientology biographies present a fictitious family heritage for Hubbard. According to an account published in the Church of Scientology's Ability magazine in 1959, Hubbard was "descended from Count de Loup who entered England with the Norman invasion and became the founder of the English de Wolfe family which emigrated to America in the 17th century. On his father's side, from the English Hubbards, who came to America in the 19th century." The story went that Count de Loup (or de Loupe) was a French courtier who saved the King of France from an attack by a wolf; the grateful monarch bestowed the title of Count de Loupe, which was eventually anglicized to "De Wolf", the name of Hubbard's maternal grandfather. No records exist to substantiate this story. His father was not even a Hubbard by birth; he was an orphan, born Henry August Wilson in August 1886, who had been adopted by an Iowa farming couple by the name of Hubbard who changed his given names to Harry Ross.
A biographical profile first published in 1973 states that the young Hubbard "spent many of his childhood years on a large cattle ranch in Montana" that was owned by his wealthy grandfather, Lafe Waterbury. According to Church accounts, Hubbard passed long days on the ranch "riding, breaking broncos, hunting coyote and taking his first steps as an explorer". Another Church biography describes his grandfather as a "wealthy Western cattleman" from whom Hubbard "inherited his fortune and family interests in America, Southern Africa, etc."
Contemporary records and Hubbard's own relatives disagree with this depiction. Hubbard's grandfather, Lafe Waterbury, briefly owned a plot of land covering 320 acres (0.5 mi2) near Kalispell, where he pastured horses and worked as a veterinarian
. A local city directory for 1913 stated Waterbury's assets as a relatively modest $1,550, the equivalent of about $34,600 at 2009 prices. The Hubbards and Waterburys lived not on a ranch but in a pair of townhouses in the center of Helena, only two blocks away from each other and not far from the Montana State Capitol
building. They also owned a small plot outside the city. Hubbard's aunt told the Los Angeles Times
in 1990 that the family did not have a ranch, "just several acres (with) a barn on it. ... We had one cow (and) four or five horses."
According to the Church publication What is Scientology?, Hubbard was "reading and writing at an early age, and soon satisfying his insatiable curiosity with the works of Shakespeare, the Greek philosophers, and other classics." His mother Ledora is described as "a rarity in her time. A thoroughly educated woman, who had attended teacher’s college prior to her marriage to Ron’s father, she was aptly suited to tutor her young son." Christiansen comments that this presentation of the exceptional qualities of his mother is typical of hagiographies – the Virgin Mary is an obvious example – and forms a kind of after-the-event rationalization, in which qualities assigned to the subject are also attributed to the subject's mother. Presenting Ledora as being "aptly suited" to educate her son suggests that she was, in effect, chosen to be his mother; she is not presented as responsible for stimulating an interest in the classics but as simply being there to help her son's development. (Indeed, as Christiansen notes, his parents do not have important roles in his official biography and are only significantly mentioned at the beginning of the story, where their respective professions are emphasized.)
Hubbard's official biographers also state that during his childhood in Montana he was befriended by "Old Tom", a medicine man
from the Native American
Blackfeet
tribe, and that he became, at six years old, "one of the few whites ever admitted into Blackfoot society as a bona fide blood brother
" This has been disputed by his unofficial biographers. Jon Atack notes that the Blackfoot reservation was over a hundred miles away from Helena. A Los Angeles Times investigation in 1990 reported that "Old Tom" was not listed in a 1907 register of the Blackfeet and that the tribe did not practice blood brotherhood. Although the Church of Scientology states that Hubbard was awarded blood brotherhood "in a ceremony that is still recalled by tribal elders", a Scientologist of fractional Blackfoot ancestry sought during the mid-1980s to prove that Hubbard had been a Blackfoot blood brother but was unsuccessful. He instead issued his own proclamation of Hubbard's blood brotherhood, which tribal officials disowned.
During the 1920s the Hubbards repeatedly relocated around the United States and overseas. Hubbard's father Harry rejoined the Navy as an enlisted man but was promoted to Ensign
in October 1918 and Lieutenant in November 1919. His posting aboard the USS Oklahoma
in 1921 required his wife and son to relocate to the ship's home ports, first San Diego, then Seattle. Hubbard joined the local Boy Scouts
and later said that when he was 13, he became the "youngest Eagle Scout
in the country". The Boy Scouts of America
has said that, at the time, it did not keep a record of the ages of its Eagle Scouts, only an alphabetical list of those who had received the award. Journalist and writer Michael Streeter comments that in the light of this "it remains unclear just how Hubbard would have known he was its youngest member."
A Scientology biography states that Hubbard's achievement of Eagle Scout status was "an early indication that he did not plan to live an ordinary life." Christiansen notes that this passage indicates that Hubbard consciously "planned" to live an extraordinary life, strengthening the underlying idea that from early childhood he worked towards the goals that led to Scientology. He was presented to President Calvin Coolidge
in a ceremony that the Church of Scientology describes as Hubbard having "represented American Scouting at the White House", by which time "the thirteen-year-old L. Ron Hubbard had become a reasonably famous figure in fairly adventurous circles." Atack describes the event more prosaically as a meet-and-greet in which Hubbard was one of forty boys who told their names to the President and shook his hand. Another Scientology biography says that Hubbard became "the fast friend of the President's son, Calvin Coolidge, Jr.
, whose untimely death is probably responsible for L. Ron Hubbard's early interest in healing research." Atack characterizes this as fictitious, as Cal Jr. and Hubbard never crossed paths.
The Hubbards traveled to Washington, D.C.
in the autumn of 1923 aboard the USS U.S. Grant
, traveling from Seattle to Hampton Roads
, Virginia
via the Panama Canal
. During this trip Hubbard reportedly received an education in Freudian psychology from Commander Joseph "Snake" Thompson, a U.S. Navy psychoanalyst and student of Sigmund Freud
who happened to be on board. According to the Church of Scientology, Thompson "took it upon himself to pass on the essentials of Freudian theory to his young friend." Hubbard himself later said that through Thompson's friendship, "I attended many lectures given at naval hospitals and generally became conversant with psychoanalysis as it had been exported from Austria by Freud." Another Scientology text says that Thompson spent "many an afternoon in the Library of Congress teaching L. Ron Hubbard what he [knew] of the human mind."
Thompson certainly existed but there is no independent confirmation of Hubbard's claims. This encounter is used in Scientology's biographies to claim that Hubbard was trained in a scientific approach to the mind but found it unsatisfying. Christiansen notes that Dianetics was "very much inspired by Freudian theory". Hubbard's invocation of Thompson therefore serves to highlight his claimed knowledge of Freud's ideas but also his exceptional maturity; as the official account has it, "Ron was also left with many unanswered questions" which prompted him to undertake further enquiries. This, in Christiansen's view, has strong parallels with the story of the child Jesus – "in particular, the emphasis on the clever child having different skills and qualities from those of boys of the same age", as displayed in incidents such as the twelve-year-old Jesus lecturing the scribes in the Temple of Jerusalem.
The following year, Harry Ross Hubbard was posted to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard at Bremerton, Washington
. His son was enrolled at Union High School, Bremerton and later studied at Queen Anne High School in Seattle. In 1927 Hubbard's father was sent to the U.S. Naval Station on Guam
in the Mariana Islands
of the South Pacific. Although Hubbard's mother also went to Guam, Hubbard himself did not accompany them but was placed in his grandparents' care in Helena, Montana to complete his schooling.
, China
, the Philippines
and Guam. What is Scientology and other Scientology texts present this era as a time when he sought, and was freely offered, ancient Eastern wisdom but found it lacking, as he had earlier with Western science. A biographical account in Hubbard's 1982 novel Battlefield Earth
says that "he worked as a supercargo and helmsman aboard a coastal trader which plied the seas between Japan and Java. He came to know old Shanghai, Beijing and the Western Hills at a time when few Westerners could enter China." He is said to have spent weeks questioning Buddhist lama
s and watching them meditate. He also recounted meeting Old Mayo, supposedly the last Chinese magician in a line that stretched back to the Court of Kublai Khan. According to the Church of Scientology, these travels were funded by his "wealthy grandfather". Hubbard is described not as a tourist but as a gifted student, intensely curious for answers to human suffering and received warmly everywhere because he was perceived as special. He is said to have faced many dangers in the company of "Major Ian Macbean of the British Secret Service", including an "encounter with Cantonese pirates, the engineering of a jungle road across Guam’s denser corner, and the evening he decked an Italian swordsman named Giovinni. (Although not before he took a saber cut across the left cheek, and Macbean nearly lost a hand)."
Hubbard's unofficial biographers present a very different account of his travels in Asia, drawing on his school records, his contemporary diaries and his father's service record. Hubbard recorded two trips to the east coast of China in his diaries. The first one was made in the company of his mother while traveling from the United States to Guam in 1927. It consisted of a brief stop-over in a couple of Chinese ports before the pair transferred to a U.S. Navy transport, the USS Gold Star
, for the journey to Guam. Hubbard spent about six weeks on the island before returning to the United States. He used his diary to record his impressions of the places he visited, noting his unfavorable impression of the poverty and the appearance of the inhabitants of Japan and China, whom he described as "gooks" and "lazy [and] ignorant". His second visit was a family holiday which took Hubbard and his parents to China via the Philippines in 1928. It is unclear whether he ever traveled to western China, Tibet or India; Atack comments that Hubbard's only corroborated visit to India appears to have been a flight change at Calcutta in 1959.
On his return to the United States in September 1927, Hubbard enrolled at Helena High School
but earned only poor grades. He abandoned school the following May and went back west to stay with his aunt and uncle in Seattle. In June he traveled to Guam on a U.S. Navy transport, the USS Henderson
, to reunite with his parents. His mother took over his education in the hope of putting him forward for the entrance examination to the United States Naval Academy
at Annapolis, Maryland
.
between October and December 1928. The ship visited Manila in the Philippines and traveled on to Qingdao
(Tsingtao), from where Hubbard and his parents traveled inland to Beijing
, before returning to the ship for transport to Shanghai
and Hong Kong
and finally back to Guam. The Church of Scientology presents a completely different version of this family holiday, stating that Hubbard "made his way deep into Manchuria’s Western Hills and beyond – to break bread with Mongolian bandits, share campfires with Siberian shamans and befriend the last in the line of magicians from the court of Kublai Khan." According to Atack, these occurrences are not mentioned in the diary that Hubbard kept of his trip. Many years later, Hubbard said that "I was a harum-scarum kid; I wasn't thinking about deep philosophic problems."
As on his previous trip, Hubbard recorded his impressions in his diary. He remained unimpressed with China. After seeing Qingdao he wrote: "A Chinaman can not live up to a thing, he always drags it down." He characterized the sights of Beijing as "rubberneck stations" for tourists and described the palaces of the Forbidden City
as "very trashy-looking" and "not worth mentioning". He visited a section of the Great Wall of China
near Beijing, which did impress him, but his overall conclusion of the Chinese was very negative: "They smell of all the baths they didn't take. The trouble with China is, there are too many chinks here."
Back on Guam, Hubbard spent much of his time writing dozens of short stories and essays. He is said to have "befriend[ed] the local Chamorros
and [taught] in the native schools", exploring "cliff-side caves to disabuse local villagers of a devil named Tadamona". Despite his mother's assistance with his education, he failed the Naval Academy entrance examination. His father's next posting took the family to Washington, D.C., where Hubbard was sent to study at the Swavely Preparatory School in Manassas, Virginia
within the D.C. metropolitan area. The Hubbards returned to Helena, Montana for a short visit to Hubbard's grandparents in August 1929 before he enrolled at Swavely the following month.
Hubbard proved unable to enter the Naval Academy because of physical rather than educational shortcomings; he was found to be too near-sighted to meet the physical admission criteria. In February 1930 he enrolled at Woodward School for Boys in Washington, D.C. as a means of earning credits for admission to George Washington University
, thereby avoiding the university's entrance examination, and successfully graduated in June. The following September, he entered George Washington University as a freshman.
While at Woodward, the 19-year-old Hubbard enlisted as a Private
in the United States Marine Corps Reserve
, stating his age as 21 and listing his profession as "photographer". He was promoted to First Sergeant
only six weeks later, a development that Atack attributes to the fact that the unit he joined – the 20th Marine Corps Reserve – was actually a training unit connected with George Washington University. His character was rated "excellent" but on October 22, 1931 he was discharged with the notation, "Not to be re-enlisted." Despite his limited experience of the Marine Corps, he told readers of Adventure magazine in October 1935 that "I've known the Corps from Quantico to Peiping, from the South Pacific to the West Indies."
Hubbard's two-year career at George Washington University looms large in his own accounts and the biographies published by the Church of Scientology. George Malko comments in Scientology: The Now Religion
:
Official biographical accounts of his life state that his "study of engineering, mathematics and nuclear physics laid the foundation for his later philosophical research." A profile in one of his books attributes "the mathematical precision of the Scientology Religion" to his studies. According to one Scientology account,
Hubbard's education in "atomic and molecular phenomena" is highlighted in many Scientology biographies. According to one, he was "a member of the first U.S. course in formal education in what is called today nuclear physics." A 1961 publication calls him "L. Ron Hubbard, C.E., Ph.D., a nuclear physicist ... educated in advanced physics and higher mathematics and also a student of Sigmund Freud and others, [who] began his present researches thirty years ago at George Washington University." In 1959, another Scientology publication described him as "Doctor Hubbard, American nuclear physicist and leading world authority on the subject of life sources and mental energies and structures." He told Scientologists in later years that "Nearly all nuclear physicists - atomic and molecular phenomena boys - 'Buck Rogers Boys', we were known as ... Like so many physicists I wrote science fiction for years, and that was the only remunerative use I made of this material."
One account published by the Church of Scientology says that Hubbard theorized that "the world of subatomic particles might possibly provide a clue to the human thought process" and he was "concerned for the safety of the world, recognising that if man were to handle the atom sanely for the greatest benefit, he would first have to learn to handle himself." He enrolled on a nuclear physics course "to synthesise and test all knowledge for what was observable, workable and could truly help solve man’s problems." Another profile calls Hubbard "a product of the atomic age" and describes how his classmates dreamed of unlocking the energy of the atom, while Hubbard himself sought to "discover the basic equations of life force, simply, to him, another kind of energy." Hubbard stated that he "set out to find out from nuclear physics a knowledge of the physical universe, something entirely lacking in Asian philosophy."
Other Scientology accounts present a rather different perspective. A 1959 biography describes him as "never noted for being in class" and says that he "thoroughly detest[ed] his subjects." Hubbard himself attributed his choice of course to his father having "decreed that I should study engineering and mathematics and so I found myself obediently studying." In a 1953 lecture, he said that he was "forced into engineering, mathematics, majoring in nuclear physics - very antipathetic to me, but there was order and there was discipline ..." Christiansen comments that the claims made for Hubbard's expertise and scientific knowledge are crucial to Scientology's own self-image and legitimation. Hubbard is presented as "a man with an impressive amount of various theretical as well as practical personal competences and educational qualifications." Scientology traces its own origins to Hubbard's "scientific" methodology, which he is said to have learned while at university. Although Scientology positions itself as a religious belief it nonetheless claims to be a true science, a "technology" capable of achieving precise and replicable results.
. He attended the summer semester in 1931 and the fall and spring semesters in 1931–32. In September 1931 he was placed on probation but failed to return for the fall 1932 semester. A Scientology account says that he "excell[ed] in but thoroughly detest[ed] his subjects"; while the latter may have been true, the former certainly was not, as his grades were consistently poor. At the end of his first year, he received a D average grade, earning an A for physical education, B for English, C for mechanical engineering, D for general chemistry and Fs for German and calculus. During his second year, he enrolled in a class on atomic and molecular physics – the "nuclear physics" course cited in his official biographies - but earned only an F grade. His other grades were also poor, ranging from a B for English to D in calculus and electrical and magnetic physics. He dropped out soon afterwards. Although Hubbard told Look magazine
in 1950 that "I never took my degree," a biography published a few years later by the Church of Scientology's Ability magazine nonetheless identifies him as the holder of a "B. S. in Civil Engineering."
Hubbard was far more interested in extracurricular activities, particularly writing and participating in the university flying club. According to official biographies, "he earned his wings as a pioneering barnstormer at the dawn of American aviation" and became "a roving reporter for Sportsman Pilot" who "helped inspire a generation of pilots who would take America to world airpower." One account published by the Church of Scientology states that he was "recognized as one of the country’s most outstanding pilots. With virtually no training time, he takes up powered flight and barnstorms throughout the Midwest." His pilot's license, however, records that he only qualified to fly gliders rather than powered aircraft.
According to the Church of Scientology, Hubbard's decision to drop out of university was not the result of educational failure on his part but was instead because he found that "beyond a basic methodology, university offered nothing." Hubbard is said to have "decid[ed] that formal study had nothing more to offer".
" and to "collect whatever one collects for exhibits in museums".
The expedition did not go according to plan after its departure from Baltimore
on June 23, 1932. Ten of the "gentleman rovers" pulled out before the start and the ship was blown far off course by storms, making an unplanned first landfall at Bermuda
. Eleven more members of the expedition quit there before the ship sailed on to its intended first port of call at Martinique. En route, it was discovered that the ship's fresh water had all leaked away. More expedition members abandoned ship on arrival. With the expedition running critically short of money, the ship's owners ordered it to return to Baltimore, bringing to an end what the captain described as "the worst trip I ever made". Hubbard nonetheless presented the expedition as a success and blamed the captain for its travails: "the ship’s dour Captain Garfield proved himself far less than a Captain Courageous, requiring Ron Hubbard’s hand at both the helm and the charts."
The Church of Scientology states that the "National Museum" (it does not not specify which one) acquired specimens collected by the expedition and the New York Times purchased some of its photographs. Hubbard's book Mission into Time states that the expedition's underwater films and specimens "provided the Hydrographic Office and the University of Michigan with invaluable data for the furtherance of their research." However, Hubbard's unofficial biographer Russell Miller
reports that the New York Times "hold[s] no photographs from the expedition, [has] no evidence that it was ever intended to buy such photographs, nor indeed any indication that the newspaper was even aware of the expedition's existence," and that neither the U.S. Hydrographic Office nor the University of Michigan has any record of receiving films or specimens from the expedition.
According to the Church of Scientology, "even some fifty years later, those who sailed with Mr. Hubbard in 1932 would still speak of that voyage as the one grand adventure in the twilight of their youth." Hubbard himself put it somewhat differently. He wrote in 1935 that the expedition "was a crazy idea at best, and I knew it, but I went ahead anyway, chartered a four-masted schooner and embarked with some fifty luckless souls who haven't stopped their cursings yet." He told Look magazine in 1950 that the Caribbean Motion Picture Expedition "was a two-bit expedition and financial bust, and I quit the ship at Puerto Rico in 1933." The collapse of the expedition led to a number of its members making legal claims against Hubbard for refunds.
After leaving university Hubbard is said to have carried out a further expedition to Puerto Rico. It is described by a 1959 biography as being undertaken to "blow off steam by leading an expedition into Central America [sic]". An account published in Mission into Time states: "Conducting the West Indies Minerals Survey, he made the first complete mineralogical survey of Puerto Rico. This was pioneer exploration in the great tradition, opening up a predictable, accurate body of data for the benefit of others. Later, in other, less materialistic fields, this was to be his way many, many times over." The Church of Scientology states that Hubbard's father "had long dreamed of augmenting his Lieutenant’s pay with a mining venture and a bit of investment capital from like-minded officers" and dispatched Hubbard to the Puerto Rican hinterland where he "sluiced inland rivers and crisscrossed the island in search of elusive gold." While there, Hubbard "conducted much ethnological work amongst the interior villages and native hillsmen".
The expedition's existence has been questioned by Hubbard's unofficial biographers. Miller states that neither the United States Geological Survey
nor the Puerto Rican Department of Natural Resources have any record of any such expedition. Hubbard only stayed on Puerto Rico from November 1932 to mid-February 1933; carrying out a complete survey of the island in that time would have required him to cover some 3,420 square miles in only three and a half months, equivalent to nearly 250 sq mi (647.5 km²) a week. According to Miller, Hubbard went there for an entirely different purpose. Hubbard's father Harry sent a letter to the Navy Department on October 13, 1932, in which he requested a passage for his son to San Juan
in order to "place his services at the disposal of the American Red Cross
in their relief work on that island." Three weeks earlier, Puerto Rico had been hit by the 1932 San Ciprian hurricane
and suffered catastrophic damage. The storm killed 225 people and injured 3,000 more, and over 100,000 people lost their homes. Hubbard traveled to the island aboard the USS Kittery
and arrived there on November 4. It is unclear whether he actually did contribute to the Red Cross relief effort, though in a 1957 lecture he said that he had been "a field executive with the American Red Cross in the Puerto Rico hurricane disaster."
At some point during his short stay on the island he appears to have done some work for a Washington D.C. firm called West Indies Minerals Incorporated. A letter of February 16, 1933 describes Hubbard as the company's "field representative" who accompanied the letter's author on a survey of a small property near the town of Luquillo, Puerto Rico
. According to his own account, Hubbard spent much of his time prospecting unsuccessfully for gold. A photograph published in Hubbard's book Mission into Time shows him using a gold pan alongside the caption "Sluicing with crews on Corozal River '32" and an article in the August 18, 1933 Washington Daily News describes Hubbard as having "left here last year for Antilles, West Indies, in search of gold so that he might return and marry the girl he met shortly before his departure". In 1935, Hubbard wrote in Adventure magazine:
He married the girl in question, Margaret "Polly" Grubb
, on April 13, 1933. Chronically short of money, he turned to full-time fiction writing to support himself and his new wife, embarking on a literary career that was to make him a well-known figure in the world of pulp fiction magazines.
Pulp fiction
Pulp fiction may refer to:* pulp magazines, short stories presented in a magazine format, printed on cheaply made wood-pulp paper* Pulp Fiction, a 1994 film directed by Quentin Tarantino...
stories in the early 1930s.
L. Ron Hubbard
L. Ron Hubbard
Lafayette Ronald Hubbard , better known as L. Ron Hubbard , was an American pulp fiction author and religious leader who founded the Church of Scientology...
was the founder of Dianetics
Dianetics
Dianetics is a set of ideas and practices regarding the metaphysical relationship between the mind and body that was invented by the science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard and is practiced by followers of Scientology...
and Scientology
Scientology
Scientology is a body of beliefs and related practices created by science fiction and fantasy author L. Ron Hubbard , starting in 1952, as a successor to his earlier self-help system, Dianetics...
. Born in Tilden, Nebraska
Tilden, Nebraska
Tilden is a city in Antelope and Madison Counties in the U.S. state of Nebraska. Tilden was incorporated as Burnett in 1885, but the U.S. Post Office officially changed the name of the village in 1887, after presidential candidate Samuel J. Tilden, due to confusion with Bennet, Nebraska. The...
in March 1911, Hubbard grew up with his family in Helena, Montana
Helena, Montana
Helena is the capital city of the U.S. state of Montana and the county seat of Lewis and Clark County. The 2010 census put the population at 28,180. The local daily newspaper is the Independent Record. The Helena Brewers minor league baseball and Helena Bighorns minor league hockey team call the...
. He was unusually well-traveled for a young man of his time, due to his father's frequent relocations in connection with his service in the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
. He lived in a number of locations in the United States and traveled to Guam
Guam
Guam is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States located in the western Pacific Ocean. It is one of five U.S. territories with an established civilian government. Guam is listed as one of 16 Non-Self-Governing Territories by the Special Committee on Decolonization of the United...
in the South Pacific
Oceania
Oceania is a region centered on the islands of the tropical Pacific Ocean. Conceptions of what constitutes Oceania range from the coral atolls and volcanic islands of the South Pacific to the entire insular region between Asia and the Americas, including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago...
, the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
and Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. He is said to have "roamed the Orient picking up ancient wisdom, philosophy and knowledge along the way from various wise men", though Hubbard's unofficial biographers – and his own journal – present a considerably different picture of events. He enrolled at George Washington University
George Washington University
The George Washington University is a private, coeducational comprehensive university located in Washington, D.C. in the United States...
to study civil engineering but dropped out in his second year. While at GWU, he organized an exhibition to the Caribbean for fellow students that looms large in his official biography but was a flop according to contemporary accounts. He subsequently spent a while on Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
panning for gold before returning to the United States, marrying his pregnant girlfriend and embarking on a career as a "penny-a-word" writer.
The Church of Scientology
Church of Scientology
The Church of Scientology is an organization devoted to the practice and the promotion of the Scientology belief system. The Church of Scientology International is the Church of Scientology's parent organization, and is responsible for the overall ecclesiastical management, dissemination and...
depicts Hubbard in hagiographic
Hagiography
Hagiography is the study of saints.From the Greek and , it refers literally to writings on the subject of such holy people, and specifically to the biographies of saints and ecclesiastical leaders. The term hagiology, the study of hagiography, is also current in English, though less common...
terms and draws on his legacy as its ultimate source of doctrine and legitimacy. The Danish historian of religions Dorthe Refslund Christensen notes that many aspects of the official version of Hubbard's early life parallel more conventional religious biographies, notably the life of Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
. Many details of Hubbard's early life remain disputed between the Church and its critics, who cast doubt on whether he had the educational and personal background claimed for him by the Church.
Significance for Scientology
Hubbard's early life is accorded great significance by the Church of Scientology, which draws on his legacy as its ultimate source of doctrine and legitimacy. Dorthe Refslund Christensen comments:Hubbard portrayed himself as a pioneering explorer, world traveler and nuclear physicist. By contrast, his critics have characterized him as a liar, a charlatan and a madman, and many of his autobiographical statements have been proven to be fictitious. The Church's portrayal of Hubbard's life displays many standard features of hagiography, such as the emphasis on the continuity of the subject's life. Events are woven together in a seamless tapestry that culminates in the subject's achievement of his spiritual goals. They are presented as part of a "master plan" that gives meaning to the subject's life in the context of a belief system. By doing this, the belief system is legitimized and given an aspect of genuineness through stressing its originator's personal qualities.
Hubbard is therefore portrayed (as he put it himself) as a man who "knew exactly where I was going" from the age of three. He is presented as a person who constantly worked towards a single objective. Each event in his life is seen as a stepping stone along the way to the development of Dianetics and Scientology. He is shown as being a singular and forward-thinking individual whose unique qualities and knowledge are essential prerequisites for his discoveries. As the Church puts it, "even in his early youth he exemplified a rare sense of purpose and dedication which, combined with his adventurous spirit, made him a living legend." The story of Hubbard's early life, as told by the Church, is closely related to Scientology's own self-image as a synthesis of Western scientific precision with Eastern philosophy. His claimed knowledge of these fields and practices underlines his claim to have founded a religion combines the best of both to appeal to all human beings on the planet.
Family and ancestry
Lafayette Ronald Hubbard was born on March 13, 1911, in Tilden, Nebraska. He was the only child of Harry Ross Hubbard, a former United States Navy sailor who worked as a newspaper employee at the time of his son's birth, and Ledora May Waterbury, who had originally trained as a teacher. After moving to Kalispell, MontanaKalispell, Montana
Kalispell is a city in and the county seat of Flathead County, Montana, United States. The 2010 census put Kalispell's population at 19,927 up 5,704 over 2000. At 40.1% this is the largest percentage of growth of any incorporated city in Montana. Kalispell is the largest city and commercial center...
, the family settled in 1913 in the state capital, Helena. Hubbard's father worked as a manager and bookkeeper, first for a local theater and later for a coal company owned by his father-in-law, Lafayette "Lafe" O. Waterbury, from whom L. Ron Hubbard got his first name. The elder Hubbard re-enlisted in the Navy when the United States entered World War I in April 1917, while his mother Ledora May worked as a clerk for the state government.
Some early Scientology biographies present a fictitious family heritage for Hubbard. According to an account published in the Church of Scientology's Ability magazine in 1959, Hubbard was "descended from Count de Loup who entered England with the Norman invasion and became the founder of the English de Wolfe family which emigrated to America in the 17th century. On his father's side, from the English Hubbards, who came to America in the 19th century." The story went that Count de Loup (or de Loupe) was a French courtier who saved the King of France from an attack by a wolf; the grateful monarch bestowed the title of Count de Loupe, which was eventually anglicized to "De Wolf", the name of Hubbard's maternal grandfather. No records exist to substantiate this story. His father was not even a Hubbard by birth; he was an orphan, born Henry August Wilson in August 1886, who had been adopted by an Iowa farming couple by the name of Hubbard who changed his given names to Harry Ross.
A biographical profile first published in 1973 states that the young Hubbard "spent many of his childhood years on a large cattle ranch in Montana" that was owned by his wealthy grandfather, Lafe Waterbury. According to Church accounts, Hubbard passed long days on the ranch "riding, breaking broncos, hunting coyote and taking his first steps as an explorer". Another Church biography describes his grandfather as a "wealthy Western cattleman" from whom Hubbard "inherited his fortune and family interests in America, Southern Africa, etc."
Contemporary records and Hubbard's own relatives disagree with this depiction. Hubbard's grandfather, Lafe Waterbury, briefly owned a plot of land covering 320 acres (0.5 mi2) near Kalispell, where he pastured horses and worked as a veterinarian
Veterinarian
A veterinary physician, colloquially called a vet, shortened from veterinarian or veterinary surgeon , is a professional who treats disease, disorder and injury in animals....
. A local city directory for 1913 stated Waterbury's assets as a relatively modest $1,550, the equivalent of about $34,600 at 2009 prices. The Hubbards and Waterburys lived not on a ranch but in a pair of townhouses in the center of Helena, only two blocks away from each other and not far from the Montana State Capitol
Montana State Capitol
The Montana State Capitol is the state capitol of the U.S. state of Montana. It houses the Montana State Legislature and is located in the state capital of Helena at 1301 East Sixth Avenue. The building was constructed between 1896 and 1902 with wing-annexes added between 1909 and 1912.-History:A...
building. They also owned a small plot outside the city. Hubbard's aunt told the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
in 1990 that the family did not have a ranch, "just several acres (with) a barn on it. ... We had one cow (and) four or five horses."
Growing up
Biographical accounts published by the Church of Scientology depict Hubbard as "a child prodigy of sorts", as Professor Ruth A. Tucker puts it. He is portrayed as riding a horse before he was able to walk and able to read and write by the time he was four. According to a Scientology account, the young Hubbard lived in the rugged West, "[r]iding horses at the age of three and a half" and facing dangers such as "escaping a pack of coyotes astride his mare named Nancy Hanks." He was said to have "considered until he was 10 years old that the handling of a rifle or hunting coyotes or trying to break broncos was more useful than school knowledge", and "[a]ttempts to send him to school were seldom availing."According to the Church publication What is Scientology?, Hubbard was "reading and writing at an early age, and soon satisfying his insatiable curiosity with the works of Shakespeare, the Greek philosophers, and other classics." His mother Ledora is described as "a rarity in her time. A thoroughly educated woman, who had attended teacher’s college prior to her marriage to Ron’s father, she was aptly suited to tutor her young son." Christiansen comments that this presentation of the exceptional qualities of his mother is typical of hagiographies – the Virgin Mary is an obvious example – and forms a kind of after-the-event rationalization, in which qualities assigned to the subject are also attributed to the subject's mother. Presenting Ledora as being "aptly suited" to educate her son suggests that she was, in effect, chosen to be his mother; she is not presented as responsible for stimulating an interest in the classics but as simply being there to help her son's development. (Indeed, as Christiansen notes, his parents do not have important roles in his official biography and are only significantly mentioned at the beginning of the story, where their respective professions are emphasized.)
Hubbard's official biographers also state that during his childhood in Montana he was befriended by "Old Tom", a medicine man
Medicine man
"Medicine man" or "Medicine woman" are English terms used to describe traditional healers and spiritual leaders among Native American and other indigenous or aboriginal peoples...
from the Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
Blackfeet
Blackfeet
The Piegan Blackfeet are a tribe of Native Americans of the Algonquian language family based in Montana, having lived in this area since around 6,500 BC. Many members of the tribe live as part of the Blackfeet Nation in northwestern Montana, with population centered in Browning...
tribe, and that he became, at six years old, "one of the few whites ever admitted into Blackfoot society as a bona fide blood brother
Blood brother
Blood brother can refer to one of two things: two males related by birth, or two or more men not related by birth who have sworn loyalty to each other. This is usually done in a ceremony, known as a blood oath, where the blood of each man is mingled together...
" This has been disputed by his unofficial biographers. Jon Atack notes that the Blackfoot reservation was over a hundred miles away from Helena. A Los Angeles Times investigation in 1990 reported that "Old Tom" was not listed in a 1907 register of the Blackfeet and that the tribe did not practice blood brotherhood. Although the Church of Scientology states that Hubbard was awarded blood brotherhood "in a ceremony that is still recalled by tribal elders", a Scientologist of fractional Blackfoot ancestry sought during the mid-1980s to prove that Hubbard had been a Blackfoot blood brother but was unsuccessful. He instead issued his own proclamation of Hubbard's blood brotherhood, which tribal officials disowned.
Boy Scouts and "Snake" Thompson
Ensign (rank)
Ensign is a junior rank of a commissioned officer in the armed forces of some countries, normally in the infantry or navy. As the junior officer in an infantry regiment was traditionally the carrier of the ensign flag, the rank itself acquired the name....
in October 1918 and Lieutenant in November 1919. His posting aboard the USS Oklahoma
USS Oklahoma (BB-37)
USS Oklahoma , the only ship of the United States Navy to ever be named for the 46th state, was a World War I-era battleship and the second of two ships in her class; her sister ship was . She, along with her sister, were the first two U.S...
in 1921 required his wife and son to relocate to the ship's home ports, first San Diego, then Seattle. Hubbard joined the local Boy Scouts
Boy Scouts of America
The Boy Scouts of America is one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with over 4.5 million youth members in its age-related divisions...
and later said that when he was 13, he became the "youngest Eagle Scout
Eagle Scout (Boy Scouts of America)
Eagle Scout is the highest rank attainable in the Boy Scouting program of the Boy Scouts of America . A Scout who attains this rank is called an Eagle Scout or Eagle. Since its introduction in 1911, the Eagle Scout rank has been earned by more than 2 million young men...
in the country". The Boy Scouts of America
Boy Scouts of America
The Boy Scouts of America is one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with over 4.5 million youth members in its age-related divisions...
has said that, at the time, it did not keep a record of the ages of its Eagle Scouts, only an alphabetical list of those who had received the award. Journalist and writer Michael Streeter comments that in the light of this "it remains unclear just how Hubbard would have known he was its youngest member."
A Scientology biography states that Hubbard's achievement of Eagle Scout status was "an early indication that he did not plan to live an ordinary life." Christiansen notes that this passage indicates that Hubbard consciously "planned" to live an extraordinary life, strengthening the underlying idea that from early childhood he worked towards the goals that led to Scientology. He was presented to President Calvin Coolidge
Calvin Coolidge
John Calvin Coolidge, Jr. was the 30th President of the United States . A Republican lawyer from Vermont, Coolidge worked his way up the ladder of Massachusetts state politics, eventually becoming governor of that state...
in a ceremony that the Church of Scientology describes as Hubbard having "represented American Scouting at the White House", by which time "the thirteen-year-old L. Ron Hubbard had become a reasonably famous figure in fairly adventurous circles." Atack describes the event more prosaically as a meet-and-greet in which Hubbard was one of forty boys who told their names to the President and shook his hand. Another Scientology biography says that Hubbard became "the fast friend of the President's son, Calvin Coolidge, Jr.
Calvin Coolidge, Jr.
Calvin Coolidge Jr. was the son of President Calvin Coolidge-Biography:Calvin Coolidge, Jr, was born in Northampton, Hampshire County, Massachusetts, on April 13, 1908 and was the younger of the two children of Calvin Coolidge , the 30th President of the United States and Grace Anna Goodhue ,...
, whose untimely death is probably responsible for L. Ron Hubbard's early interest in healing research." Atack characterizes this as fictitious, as Cal Jr. and Hubbard never crossed paths.
The Hubbards traveled to Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
in the autumn of 1923 aboard the USS U.S. Grant
USS U. S. Grant (AP-29)
USS U. S. Grant was a transport ship that saw service with the United States Navy in World War II. Originally a German ocean liner named Konig Wilhelm II, she was seized by the United States during the First World War and renamed USS Madawaska in 1917 before being renamed USS U. S...
, traveling from Seattle to Hampton Roads
Hampton Roads
Hampton Roads is the name for both a body of water and the Norfolk–Virginia Beach metropolitan area which surrounds it in southeastern Virginia, United States...
, Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
via the Panama Canal
Panama Canal
The Panama Canal is a ship canal in Panama that joins the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and is a key conduit for international maritime trade. Built from 1904 to 1914, the canal has seen annual traffic rise from about 1,000 ships early on to 14,702 vessels measuring a total of 309.6...
. During this trip Hubbard reportedly received an education in Freudian psychology from Commander Joseph "Snake" Thompson, a U.S. Navy psychoanalyst and student of Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis...
who happened to be on board. According to the Church of Scientology, Thompson "took it upon himself to pass on the essentials of Freudian theory to his young friend." Hubbard himself later said that through Thompson's friendship, "I attended many lectures given at naval hospitals and generally became conversant with psychoanalysis as it had been exported from Austria by Freud." Another Scientology text says that Thompson spent "many an afternoon in the Library of Congress teaching L. Ron Hubbard what he [knew] of the human mind."
Thompson certainly existed but there is no independent confirmation of Hubbard's claims. This encounter is used in Scientology's biographies to claim that Hubbard was trained in a scientific approach to the mind but found it unsatisfying. Christiansen notes that Dianetics was "very much inspired by Freudian theory". Hubbard's invocation of Thompson therefore serves to highlight his claimed knowledge of Freud's ideas but also his exceptional maturity; as the official account has it, "Ron was also left with many unanswered questions" which prompted him to undertake further enquiries. This, in Christiansen's view, has strong parallels with the story of the child Jesus – "in particular, the emphasis on the clever child having different skills and qualities from those of boys of the same age", as displayed in incidents such as the twelve-year-old Jesus lecturing the scribes in the Temple of Jerusalem.
The following year, Harry Ross Hubbard was posted to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard at Bremerton, Washington
Bremerton, Washington
Bremerton is a city in Kitsap County, Washington, United States. The population was 38,790 at the 2011 State Estimate, making it the largest city on the Olympic Peninsula. Bremerton is home to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and the Bremerton Annex of Naval Base Kitsap...
. His son was enrolled at Union High School, Bremerton and later studied at Queen Anne High School in Seattle. In 1927 Hubbard's father was sent to the U.S. Naval Station on Guam
Guam
Guam is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States located in the western Pacific Ocean. It is one of five U.S. territories with an established civilian government. Guam is listed as one of 16 Non-Self-Governing Territories by the Special Committee on Decolonization of the United...
in the Mariana Islands
Mariana Islands
The Mariana Islands are an arc-shaped archipelago made up by the summits of 15 volcanic mountains in the north-western Pacific Ocean between the 12th and 21st parallels north and along the 145th meridian east...
of the South Pacific. Although Hubbard's mother also went to Guam, Hubbard himself did not accompany them but was placed in his grandparents' care in Helena, Montana to complete his schooling.
First trip to Asia
Between 1927 and 1929 Hubbard traveled to JapanJapan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
and Guam. What is Scientology and other Scientology texts present this era as a time when he sought, and was freely offered, ancient Eastern wisdom but found it lacking, as he had earlier with Western science. A biographical account in Hubbard's 1982 novel Battlefield Earth
Battlefield Earth (novel)
Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000 is a 1982 science fiction novel written by the Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. He composed a soundtrack to the book called Space Jazz....
says that "he worked as a supercargo and helmsman aboard a coastal trader which plied the seas between Japan and Java. He came to know old Shanghai, Beijing and the Western Hills at a time when few Westerners could enter China." He is said to have spent weeks questioning Buddhist lama
Lama
Lama is a title for a Tibetan teacher of the Dharma. The name is similar to the Sanskrit term guru .Historically, the term was used for venerated spiritual masters or heads of monasteries...
s and watching them meditate. He also recounted meeting Old Mayo, supposedly the last Chinese magician in a line that stretched back to the Court of Kublai Khan. According to the Church of Scientology, these travels were funded by his "wealthy grandfather". Hubbard is described not as a tourist but as a gifted student, intensely curious for answers to human suffering and received warmly everywhere because he was perceived as special. He is said to have faced many dangers in the company of "Major Ian Macbean of the British Secret Service", including an "encounter with Cantonese pirates, the engineering of a jungle road across Guam’s denser corner, and the evening he decked an Italian swordsman named Giovinni. (Although not before he took a saber cut across the left cheek, and Macbean nearly lost a hand)."
Hubbard's unofficial biographers present a very different account of his travels in Asia, drawing on his school records, his contemporary diaries and his father's service record. Hubbard recorded two trips to the east coast of China in his diaries. The first one was made in the company of his mother while traveling from the United States to Guam in 1927. It consisted of a brief stop-over in a couple of Chinese ports before the pair transferred to a U.S. Navy transport, the USS Gold Star
USS Gold Star (AK-12)
USS Gold Star was a cargo ship acquired by the U.S. Navy for service in World War II. She was responsible for delivering necessary goods and equipment to ships and stations in the war zone.- Renamed Gold Star :...
, for the journey to Guam. Hubbard spent about six weeks on the island before returning to the United States. He used his diary to record his impressions of the places he visited, noting his unfavorable impression of the poverty and the appearance of the inhabitants of Japan and China, whom he described as "gooks" and "lazy [and] ignorant". His second visit was a family holiday which took Hubbard and his parents to China via the Philippines in 1928. It is unclear whether he ever traveled to western China, Tibet or India; Atack comments that Hubbard's only corroborated visit to India appears to have been a flight change at Calcutta in 1959.
On his return to the United States in September 1927, Hubbard enrolled at Helena High School
Helena High School
Helena High School is a public high school for grades 9 through 12 located in Helena, Montana. It is part of the Helena Public School District. Founded in September 1876, it is the oldest high school in the state of Montana.-Curriculum:...
but earned only poor grades. He abandoned school the following May and went back west to stay with his aunt and uncle in Seattle. In June he traveled to Guam on a U.S. Navy transport, the USS Henderson
USS Henderson (AP-1)
The first USS Henderson was a transport in the United States Navy during World War I and World War II. In 1943, she was converted to a hospital ship and commissioned as USS Bountiful ....
, to reunite with his parents. His mother took over his education in the hope of putting him forward for the entrance examination to the United States Naval Academy
United States Naval Academy
The United States Naval Academy is a four-year coeducational federal service academy located in Annapolis, Maryland, United States...
at Annapolis, Maryland
Annapolis, Maryland
Annapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Maryland, as well as the county seat of Anne Arundel County. It had a population of 38,394 at the 2010 census and is situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, south of Baltimore and about east of Washington, D.C. Annapolis is...
.
Second trip to Asia
A number of naval families, including Hubbard's, traveled from Guam to China aboard the USS Gold StarUSS Gold Star (AK-12)
USS Gold Star was a cargo ship acquired by the U.S. Navy for service in World War II. She was responsible for delivering necessary goods and equipment to ships and stations in the war zone.- Renamed Gold Star :...
between October and December 1928. The ship visited Manila in the Philippines and traveled on to Qingdao
Qingdao
' also known in the West by its postal map spelling Tsingtao, is a major city with a population of over 8.715 million in eastern Shandong province, Eastern China. Its built up area, made of 7 urban districts plus Jimo city, is home to about 4,346,000 inhabitants in 2010.It borders Yantai to the...
(Tsingtao), from where Hubbard and his parents traveled inland to Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
, before returning to the ship for transport to Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
and Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
and finally back to Guam. The Church of Scientology presents a completely different version of this family holiday, stating that Hubbard "made his way deep into Manchuria’s Western Hills and beyond – to break bread with Mongolian bandits, share campfires with Siberian shamans and befriend the last in the line of magicians from the court of Kublai Khan." According to Atack, these occurrences are not mentioned in the diary that Hubbard kept of his trip. Many years later, Hubbard said that "I was a harum-scarum kid; I wasn't thinking about deep philosophic problems."
As on his previous trip, Hubbard recorded his impressions in his diary. He remained unimpressed with China. After seeing Qingdao he wrote: "A Chinaman can not live up to a thing, he always drags it down." He characterized the sights of Beijing as "rubberneck stations" for tourists and described the palaces of the Forbidden City
Forbidden City
The Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty. It is located in the middle of Beijing, China, and now houses the Palace Museum...
as "very trashy-looking" and "not worth mentioning". He visited a section of the Great Wall of China
Great Wall of China
The Great Wall of China is a series of stone and earthen fortifications in northern China, built originally to protect the northern borders of the Chinese Empire against intrusions by various nomadic groups...
near Beijing, which did impress him, but his overall conclusion of the Chinese was very negative: "They smell of all the baths they didn't take. The trouble with China is, there are too many chinks here."
Back on Guam, Hubbard spent much of his time writing dozens of short stories and essays. He is said to have "befriend[ed] the local Chamorros
Chamorros
The Chamorro people, or Chamoru people, are the indigenous peoples of the Mariana Islands, which include the American territory of Guam and the United States Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in Micronesia. Today, significant Chamoru populations also exist in several U.S. states...
and [taught] in the native schools", exploring "cliff-side caves to disabuse local villagers of a devil named Tadamona". Despite his mother's assistance with his education, he failed the Naval Academy entrance examination. His father's next posting took the family to Washington, D.C., where Hubbard was sent to study at the Swavely Preparatory School in Manassas, Virginia
Manassas, Virginia
The City of Manassas is an independent city surrounded by Prince William County and the independent city of Manassas Park in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. Its population was 37,821 as of 2010. Manassas also surrounds the county seat for Prince William County but that county...
within the D.C. metropolitan area. The Hubbards returned to Helena, Montana for a short visit to Hubbard's grandparents in August 1929 before he enrolled at Swavely the following month.
Hubbard proved unable to enter the Naval Academy because of physical rather than educational shortcomings; he was found to be too near-sighted to meet the physical admission criteria. In February 1930 he enrolled at Woodward School for Boys in Washington, D.C. as a means of earning credits for admission to George Washington University
George Washington University
The George Washington University is a private, coeducational comprehensive university located in Washington, D.C. in the United States...
, thereby avoiding the university's entrance examination, and successfully graduated in June. The following September, he entered George Washington University as a freshman.
While at Woodward, the 19-year-old Hubbard enlisted as a Private
Private (rank)
A Private is a soldier of the lowest military rank .In modern military parlance, 'Private' is shortened to 'Pte' in the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries and to 'Pvt.' in the United States.Notably both Sir Fitzroy MacLean and Enoch Powell are examples of, rare, rapid career...
in the United States Marine Corps Reserve
United States Marine Corps Reserve
The Marine Forces Reserve is the reserve force of the United States Marine Corps. It is the largest command in the U.S...
, stating his age as 21 and listing his profession as "photographer". He was promoted to First Sergeant
First Sergeant
First sergeant is the name of a military rank used in many countries, typically a senior non-commissioned officer.-Singapore:First Sergeant is a Specialist in the Singapore Armed Forces. First Sergeants are the most senior of the junior Specialists, ranking above Second Sergeants, and below Staff...
only six weeks later, a development that Atack attributes to the fact that the unit he joined – the 20th Marine Corps Reserve – was actually a training unit connected with George Washington University. His character was rated "excellent" but on October 22, 1931 he was discharged with the notation, "Not to be re-enlisted." Despite his limited experience of the Marine Corps, he told readers of Adventure magazine in October 1935 that "I've known the Corps from Quantico to Peiping, from the South Pacific to the West Indies."
Nuclear physicist claims
Scientology: The Now Religion
Scientology: The Now Religion is a non-fiction book on Scientology, written by George Malko. The book was the first full length analysis of the history surrounding the founding of the Church of Scientology, and L. Ron Hubbard. The author conducted interviews with members, and provides analysis...
:
Official biographical accounts of his life state that his "study of engineering, mathematics and nuclear physics laid the foundation for his later philosophical research." A profile in one of his books attributes "the mathematical precision of the Scientology Religion" to his studies. According to one Scientology account,
Hubbard's education in "atomic and molecular phenomena" is highlighted in many Scientology biographies. According to one, he was "a member of the first U.S. course in formal education in what is called today nuclear physics." A 1961 publication calls him "L. Ron Hubbard, C.E., Ph.D., a nuclear physicist ... educated in advanced physics and higher mathematics and also a student of Sigmund Freud and others, [who] began his present researches thirty years ago at George Washington University." In 1959, another Scientology publication described him as "Doctor Hubbard, American nuclear physicist and leading world authority on the subject of life sources and mental energies and structures." He told Scientologists in later years that "Nearly all nuclear physicists - atomic and molecular phenomena boys - 'Buck Rogers Boys', we were known as ... Like so many physicists I wrote science fiction for years, and that was the only remunerative use I made of this material."
One account published by the Church of Scientology says that Hubbard theorized that "the world of subatomic particles might possibly provide a clue to the human thought process" and he was "concerned for the safety of the world, recognising that if man were to handle the atom sanely for the greatest benefit, he would first have to learn to handle himself." He enrolled on a nuclear physics course "to synthesise and test all knowledge for what was observable, workable and could truly help solve man’s problems." Another profile calls Hubbard "a product of the atomic age" and describes how his classmates dreamed of unlocking the energy of the atom, while Hubbard himself sought to "discover the basic equations of life force, simply, to him, another kind of energy." Hubbard stated that he "set out to find out from nuclear physics a knowledge of the physical universe, something entirely lacking in Asian philosophy."
Other Scientology accounts present a rather different perspective. A 1959 biography describes him as "never noted for being in class" and says that he "thoroughly detest[ed] his subjects." Hubbard himself attributed his choice of course to his father having "decreed that I should study engineering and mathematics and so I found myself obediently studying." In a 1953 lecture, he said that he was "forced into engineering, mathematics, majoring in nuclear physics - very antipathetic to me, but there was order and there was discipline ..." Christiansen comments that the claims made for Hubbard's expertise and scientific knowledge are crucial to Scientology's own self-image and legitimation. Hubbard is presented as "a man with an impressive amount of various theretical as well as practical personal competences and educational qualifications." Scientology traces its own origins to Hubbard's "scientific" methodology, which he is said to have learned while at university. Although Scientology positions itself as a religious belief it nonetheless claims to be a true science, a "technology" capable of achieving precise and replicable results.
Academic record and extracurricular activities
Hubbard's academic record, which came to light in the 1970s, revealed that he had been a student in George Washington University's School of Engineering and had majored in civil engineeringCivil engineering
Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including works like roads, bridges, canals, dams, and buildings...
. He attended the summer semester in 1931 and the fall and spring semesters in 1931–32. In September 1931 he was placed on probation but failed to return for the fall 1932 semester. A Scientology account says that he "excell[ed] in but thoroughly detest[ed] his subjects"; while the latter may have been true, the former certainly was not, as his grades were consistently poor. At the end of his first year, he received a D average grade, earning an A for physical education, B for English, C for mechanical engineering, D for general chemistry and Fs for German and calculus. During his second year, he enrolled in a class on atomic and molecular physics – the "nuclear physics" course cited in his official biographies - but earned only an F grade. His other grades were also poor, ranging from a B for English to D in calculus and electrical and magnetic physics. He dropped out soon afterwards. Although Hubbard told Look magazine
Look (American magazine)
Look was a bi-weekly, general-interest magazine published in Des Moines, Iowa from 1937 to 1971, with more of an emphasis on photographs than articles...
in 1950 that "I never took my degree," a biography published a few years later by the Church of Scientology's Ability magazine nonetheless identifies him as the holder of a "B. S. in Civil Engineering."
Hubbard was far more interested in extracurricular activities, particularly writing and participating in the university flying club. According to official biographies, "he earned his wings as a pioneering barnstormer at the dawn of American aviation" and became "a roving reporter for Sportsman Pilot" who "helped inspire a generation of pilots who would take America to world airpower." One account published by the Church of Scientology states that he was "recognized as one of the country’s most outstanding pilots. With virtually no training time, he takes up powered flight and barnstorms throughout the Midwest." His pilot's license, however, records that he only qualified to fly gliders rather than powered aircraft.
According to the Church of Scientology, Hubbard's decision to drop out of university was not the result of educational failure on his part but was instead because he found that "beyond a basic methodology, university offered nothing." Hubbard is said to have "decid[ed] that formal study had nothing more to offer".
Caribbean Motion Picture Expedition
Hubbard's final semester at George Washington University saw him embark on what the Church of Scientology describes as a career as an "adventurer and explorer". In May 1932, Hubbard announced in the pages of The University Hatchet, the GWU student newspaper, that he had organized an expedition to the Caribbean for "fifty young gentleman rovers" aboard the schooner Doris Hamlin. The aims of the "Caribbean Motion Picture Expedition" were stated as being to explore and film the pirate "strongholds and bivouacs of the Spanish MainSpanish Main
In the days of the Spanish New World Empire, the mainland of the American continent enclosing the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico was referred to as the Spanish Main. It included present-day Florida, the east shore of the Gulf of Mexico in Texas, Mexico, Central America and the north coast of...
" and to "collect whatever one collects for exhibits in museums".
The expedition did not go according to plan after its departure from Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
on June 23, 1932. Ten of the "gentleman rovers" pulled out before the start and the ship was blown far off course by storms, making an unplanned first landfall at Bermuda
Bermuda
Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. It is about south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and northeast of Miami, Florida...
. Eleven more members of the expedition quit there before the ship sailed on to its intended first port of call at Martinique. En route, it was discovered that the ship's fresh water had all leaked away. More expedition members abandoned ship on arrival. With the expedition running critically short of money, the ship's owners ordered it to return to Baltimore, bringing to an end what the captain described as "the worst trip I ever made". Hubbard nonetheless presented the expedition as a success and blamed the captain for its travails: "the ship’s dour Captain Garfield proved himself far less than a Captain Courageous, requiring Ron Hubbard’s hand at both the helm and the charts."
The Church of Scientology states that the "National Museum" (it does not not specify which one) acquired specimens collected by the expedition and the New York Times purchased some of its photographs. Hubbard's book Mission into Time states that the expedition's underwater films and specimens "provided the Hydrographic Office and the University of Michigan with invaluable data for the furtherance of their research." However, Hubbard's unofficial biographer Russell Miller
Russell Miller
Russell Miller is an award-winning British journalist and author of fifteen books, including biographies of Hugh Hefner, J. Paul Getty and L. Ron Hubbard.-L. Ron Hubbard biography:...
reports that the New York Times "hold[s] no photographs from the expedition, [has] no evidence that it was ever intended to buy such photographs, nor indeed any indication that the newspaper was even aware of the expedition's existence," and that neither the U.S. Hydrographic Office nor the University of Michigan has any record of receiving films or specimens from the expedition.
According to the Church of Scientology, "even some fifty years later, those who sailed with Mr. Hubbard in 1932 would still speak of that voyage as the one grand adventure in the twilight of their youth." Hubbard himself put it somewhat differently. He wrote in 1935 that the expedition "was a crazy idea at best, and I knew it, but I went ahead anyway, chartered a four-masted schooner and embarked with some fifty luckless souls who haven't stopped their cursings yet." He told Look magazine in 1950 that the Caribbean Motion Picture Expedition "was a two-bit expedition and financial bust, and I quit the ship at Puerto Rico in 1933." The collapse of the expedition led to a number of its members making legal claims against Hubbard for refunds.
Puerto Rican Mineralogical Expedition
The expedition's existence has been questioned by Hubbard's unofficial biographers. Miller states that neither the United States Geological Survey
United States Geological Survey
The United States Geological Survey is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, and the natural hazards that threaten it. The organization has four major science disciplines, concerning biology,...
nor the Puerto Rican Department of Natural Resources have any record of any such expedition. Hubbard only stayed on Puerto Rico from November 1932 to mid-February 1933; carrying out a complete survey of the island in that time would have required him to cover some 3,420 square miles in only three and a half months, equivalent to nearly 250 sq mi (647.5 km²) a week. According to Miller, Hubbard went there for an entirely different purpose. Hubbard's father Harry sent a letter to the Navy Department on October 13, 1932, in which he requested a passage for his son to San Juan
San Juan, Puerto Rico
San Juan , officially Municipio de la Ciudad Capital San Juan Bautista , is the capital and most populous municipality in Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 395,326 making it the 46th-largest city under the jurisdiction of...
in order to "place his services at the disposal of the American Red Cross
American Red Cross
The American Red Cross , also known as the American National Red Cross, is a volunteer-led, humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief and education inside the United States. It is the designated U.S...
in their relief work on that island." Three weeks earlier, Puerto Rico had been hit by the 1932 San Ciprian hurricane
1932 San Ciprian Hurricane
The 1932 San Ciprian hurricane was a powerful Atlantic tropical cyclone that struck Puerto Rico during the 1932 Atlantic hurricane season. The seventh tropical cyclone, fourth hurricane and third major hurricane of the 1932 season, the San Ciprian Hurricane formed on September 25 east of the...
and suffered catastrophic damage. The storm killed 225 people and injured 3,000 more, and over 100,000 people lost their homes. Hubbard traveled to the island aboard the USS Kittery
USS Kittery (AK-2)
USS Kittery was a cargo ship acquired by the U.S. Navy for service in World War I.-Acquiring a captured German freighter:Kittery was launched as the German transport, SS Praesident, 30 November 1905, by G. Seebach Co., Bremerhaven, Germany...
and arrived there on November 4. It is unclear whether he actually did contribute to the Red Cross relief effort, though in a 1957 lecture he said that he had been "a field executive with the American Red Cross in the Puerto Rico hurricane disaster."
At some point during his short stay on the island he appears to have done some work for a Washington D.C. firm called West Indies Minerals Incorporated. A letter of February 16, 1933 describes Hubbard as the company's "field representative" who accompanied the letter's author on a survey of a small property near the town of Luquillo, Puerto Rico
Luquillo, Puerto Rico
Luquillo is a municipality of Puerto Rico located in the northeast coast, northwest of Fajardo; and east of Rio Grande. Luquillo is spread over 5 wards and Luquillo Pueblo...
. According to his own account, Hubbard spent much of his time prospecting unsuccessfully for gold. A photograph published in Hubbard's book Mission into Time shows him using a gold pan alongside the caption "Sluicing with crews on Corozal River '32" and an article in the August 18, 1933 Washington Daily News describes Hubbard as having "left here last year for Antilles, West Indies, in search of gold so that he might return and marry the girl he met shortly before his departure". In 1935, Hubbard wrote in Adventure magazine:
He married the girl in question, Margaret "Polly" Grubb
Margaret Grubb
Margaret Louise Grubb was the first wife of pulp fiction author and Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, to whom she was married between 1933 and 1947. She was also the mother of Hubbard's first son, L. Ron Hubbard, Jr...
, on April 13, 1933. Chronically short of money, he turned to full-time fiction writing to support himself and his new wife, embarking on a literary career that was to make him a well-known figure in the world of pulp fiction magazines.