FROM THE FILES OF THE FBI 285
[newspaper article; portions missing in the xerox, photos not very clear]
SCIENTOLOGY
THE SUNDAY TIMES, 5 OCTOBER 1969
Revealed for the first time...
The odd beginning of Ron Hubbard's career
[two photos side by side, with caption text between them; left photo is
full figure standing person, right photo appears to be a 3/4 profile of a
person wearing a Navy style cap; photo caption: In 1946 Aleister Crowley
(left) the sorcerer and mystic whose dabblings in black magic earned him
the title The Wickedest Man in the World, found a new disciple and
welcomed him to one of his occult communities in California. The
extraordinary activities of this new and enthusiastic disciple are
described in a vast collection of papers owned by a former admirer of
Crowley, which we have examined. The man in question is Lafayette Ron
Hubbard (right), head of the now notorious Church of Scientology.]
JOHN WHITESIDE Parsons, a brilliant rocket fuel scientist, joined the
American branch of Crowley's cult in 1939. He struck up earnest
correspondence with "The Beast 666," as Crowley was known by his
followers, and soon became his outstanding protege in the United States.
By January 1946, Parsons was impatient to break new frontiers in the
occult world. He decided to take the spirit of Babalon, the "whore of
Babylon," and invest it in a human being.
But to carry out this intricate mission Parsons needed a female sexual
partner to create his child in the astral (spiritual) world. If this part
of the fixture went succesfully Parsons would be able to call down the
spiritual baby and direct it to a human womb. When born, this child would
incarnate the forces of Babalon. During his magical preparations for this
incarnation Parsons found himself overwhelmed with assistance from young
novitiate named Ron Hubbard.
Parsons wrote to Crowley at the beginning of 1946, "He (Hubbard) is a
gentleman, red hair, green eyes, honest and intelligent and we have become
great friends. Although he has no formal training in magic he has an
extraordinary amount of experience and understanding in the field. Ron
appears to have some sort of highly developed astral vision. He describes
his angel as a beautiful winged woman with red hair whom he calls the
Empress and who has guided him through his life and saved him many times."
He concluded almost ecstatically, "He is in complete accord with our own
principles. I have found a staunch companion and comrade in Ron."
But within two months the bonds of friendship were under some strain: Ron
claimed Parson's girl-friend, Betty. With admirable restraint Parsons
wrote to Crowley, "She has transferred her sexual affection to Ron. I
cared for her rather deeply, but I have no desire to control her
emotions." As if to [missing words] their loyalties, Parsons, [missing
words] Betty decided to [missing words] and form a [missing words]
Meanwhile preparations for the mystical mission were well under way. From
January 4 to 15, 1946, Parsons and Hubbard engaged in a nightly ritual of
incantation, talisman-waving and other black magic, faithfully described
in Parson's diary as Conjuration of Air, Invocation of Wan and
Consecration of Air Dagger. With a Prokofiev violin concerto blaring away
the two of them pleaded with the spirits for "an elemental mate"--a girl
willing to go through sexual rites to incarnate Babalon in the spirit
world.
Parsons mentions that windstorms occurred on a couple of nights and one
night the power supply failed. But nothing seriously responsive until
January 14, when Ron was struck on the right shoulder and had a candle
knocked out of his hand. "He called me," Parsons wrote, "and we observed
a brownish yellow light about seven feet high. I brandished a magical
sword and it disappeared. Ron's right arm was paralysed for the rest of
the [missing words]
The following night was even more portentious. Hubbard apparently saw a
vision of one of Parson's enemies. Parsons wrote, "He attacked the figure
and pinned it to the door with four throwing knives with which
[next page]
[at least one line at the top of this page appears to have been cut off in
xeroxing]
[missing words] Parsons and Hubbard were in a state of [illegible word]
Then on January 18 Parsons turned to Ron and said, "It is done." He added
[illegible word] returned home and found a young woman answering the
requirements waiting for me."
The incarnation ritual set out in Parsons' manuscript, The Book of
Babalon, is difficult reading for the unconfirmed spiritualist. Broadly
interpreted, Parsons and Hubbard constructed an altar and Hubbard acted as
high priest during a series of ceremonies in which Parsons and the girl
shared sex. The owner of the documents, who is an expert on Crowley's
magic, says that Parsons at this stage was completely under Hubbard's
domination. How else can one explain Hubbard's role as High priest in the
rites after only a few weeks in the trade?
For the first of the birth ceremonies which began on March 1 Hubbard wore
white and carried a lamp while Parsons was cloaked in a black, hooded
garment carrying a cup and dagger. At Hubbard's suggestion they played
Rachmaninoff's Isle of the Dead as background music.
[photo: full face bust of man; caption: PARSONS, "the AntiChrist"
Parsons' account of the start of the birth ritual is as follows: "The
Scribe (Hubbard) said, The year of Babalon is 4063. She is the flame of
life, power of darkness, she destroys with a glance, she may take thy
soul. She feeds upon the death of men. Beautiful--horrible.' The
scribe, now pale and sweating, rested awhile, then continued." There are
two possible reasons why Hubbard showed anxiety at this stage of the
ceremony, the owner of the papers says. He was either deeply moved by the
spiritual depth of the ceremony or he couldn't think what to say next.
Hubbard further instructed Parsons: "Display thyself to our lady; dedicate
thy organs to her; dedicate thy heart to her; display thy mind to her;
dedicate thy soul to her, for she shall absorb thee. Retire from human
contact until noon tomorrow. Speak not of this ritual. Discuss nothing
of it. Consult no book but thine own [missing words] at this altar as one
god before another."
On the third day the ritual [illegible word] four hours before dawn.
[illegible word] his companion, "Lay out [illegible word] white sheet.
Place upon it blood of birth. Envision her approaching thee. Think upon
the lewd, lascivious things thou coulds't do. All is good to Babalon.
All. Preserve the material basis. The lust is hers, the passion yours.
Consider thou the Beast raping." These invocations along with other
passages in the ritual indicates that Parsons had collected specimens of
his own sperm and the girl's menstrual fluid.
The climax of the ceremony occurred the following day with Ron at the
altar working his two subjects into a sexual frenzy. Over Rachmaninoff he
intoned such gems as:
Her mouth is red and her breasts are fair and her loins are full fire.
And her lust is strong as a man is strong in the heat of her desire.
An exalted Parsons wrote the next day, "Babalon is incarnate upon the
earth today awaiting the proper hour of her manifestation. And in that ay
my work will be accomplished and I shall be blown away upon the breath of
the father even as it is prophecied." (In fact, Parsons was "blown away"
in a rocket fuel explosion at his experimental laboratory in Pasadena in
1952.)
Unable to contain his joy, Parsons decided to tell Crowley what had
happened. On March 6 he wrote, "I can hardly tell you or decide how much
to write. I am under command of extreme secrecy. I have had the most
important, devastating experience of my life.." Crowley was dumbfounded by
the news of the incarnation ceremony. He wrote back, "You have me
completely puzzled by your remarks. I thought I had the most morbid
imagination but it seems I have not. I cannot form the slightest idea
what you can possibly mean."
With a distinct note of concern he dashed off a letter on the same day to
the head of his American cult saying, "Apparently Parsons or Hubbard or
somebody is producing a Moonchild. I get fairly frantic when I
contemplate the idiocy of these louts." (This acid rebuke comes from a
man whose activities were once summed up by a judge like this: "I have
never heard such dreadful, horrible, blasphemous and abominable stuff as
that which has been produced by the man who describes himself as the
greatest living poet.")
By May that same year Crowley was not only concerned about Parsons's
spiritual wellbeing. There was a small matter of certain moneys. When
the trio formed their business enterprise, Parsons is believed to have put
in 17,000 dollars, Hubbard about 1,000 dollars and Betty nothing. Using
about 10,000 dollars of the money [missing words] and his [illegible word]
acquired girl friend, Betty, bought a yacht. A report to the head of the
American branch by another cult member says "Ron and Betty have
[illegible words] at Miami, Florida, and are living the life of Riley,
while brother John (Parsons) is living at rock bottom and I mean rock
bottom."
In a more sinister way the report added, "Let us consider this matter of
the magical child which Jack Parsons is supposed to turn loose on the
world in nine months (now seven). Ron, the Seer, was the guy who laid
down the main ideas, technic (sic), etc., of said operation."
On reading Parsons's accounts of the ceremony and the reports from branch
headquarters in America, Crowley cabled his US office on May 22: "Suspect
Ron playing confidence trick--Jack Parsons weak fool--obvious victim
prowling swindlers." In a letter a few days later he said, "It seems to
me on the information of our brethren in California that Parsons has got
an illumination in which he lost all his personal independence. From our
brother's account he has given away both his girl and his money.
Apparently it is the ordinary confidence trick."
A much-chastened Parsons wrote to Crowley on July 5. "Here I am in Miami
pursuing the children of my folly. I have them well tied up. They cannot
move without going to jail. However, I am afraid that most of the money
has already been spent. I will be lucky to salvage 3,000 to 5,000
dollars." Just how Parsons managed to capture the errant lovers is in
keeping with the other extraordinary chapters of this story. "Hubbard
attempted to escape me," Parsons wrote, "by sailing at 5 p.m. and
performed a full invocation to Bartzabel within the circle at 8 p.m. (a
curse). At the same time, however, his ship was struck by a sudden squall
off the coast which ripped off his sails and forced him back to port where
I took the boat in custody."
Parsons recovered financially and possibly as a backlash to his experience
with Hubbard he took the Oath of the Anti-Christ in 1948 and changed his
name to Belarion Armiluss Al Dajjal AntiChrist. In his scientology
publications Hubbard says of the period, "Crippled and blinded at the end
of the war I resumed studies of philosophy and by my discoveries recovered
so fully that I was reclassified in 1949 for full combat duty."
Hubbard claims that more than two dozen thinkers, prophets and
psychologists influenced scientology (which he launched in 1951); everyone
from Plato, Jesus of Nazareth to Sigmund Freud whom he says he studied
under in Vienna. The record can now be righted with the inclusion of
Aleister Crowley, the Beast 666.
Alexander Mitchell
