Truth, Fiction and Ron
NOTE TO SCIENTOLOGISTS: As the biographical claims on this page come exclusively from Church sources, it is impeccably "theta". I invite you to read it and ask the obvious question: why is the Church's biography of L. Ron Hubbard so inconsistent and in many cases easily disprovable?Red means that the claim is disputable and / or contradicted by written and verbal evidence.
Orange means that the claim dubious and / or cannot, as yet, be independently verified or refuted.
Green means that the claim is verifiable and can be treated as factual.
LRH's family
Born 13th March 1911 in Tilden, Nebraska, USA.
(Source: Church of Scientology documents passim)
This is one of the very few undisputed facts about Hubbard's life. His birthdate was not, however, a Friday, as he later claimed.
Corroboration: US Govt records
Parents were Ledora [also 'Fedora' and 'Dora' - sic] May Hubbard (neé Waterbury) and Harry Ross Hubbard.
(Source: Church of Scientology documents passim)
Apart from some confusion about LRH's mother's name, also undisputed.
Corroboration: US Govt. records
Father was a Commander in the US Navy.
This is usually juxtaposed with information about LRH's birth, as follows:
"L. Ron Hubbard was born on March 13, 1911 in Tilden Nebraska. His father was Commander Harry Ross Hubbard of the United States Navy."This is doubly untrue, as Harry Ross Hubbard was a Lieutenant when LRH was born and never rose above the rank of Lieutenant-Commander - a very different thing from full Commander.(Sources: 'What Is Scientology?', 1978, 1992)
'Mission into Time' (L. Ron Hubbard, 1973)
'What Is Scientology?' (Church of Scientology, 1978, 1992)
Corroboration: Harry Ross Hubbard service record, US Navy Archives
Grandfather on mother's side was a wealthy Western cattleman who owned a ranch covering a quarter of Montana [35,000 square miles].
Sources: 'Mission into Time' (L. Ron Hubbard, 1973)Demonstrably untrue: LRH's grandfather, Lafayette Waterbury, was a frequently cash-strapped veterinarian based primarily in towns (principally Kalispell and Helena, Montana). His largest recorded landholding was of 360 acres in Nebraska. One suspects that had he owned a quarter of Montana, that fact would have been recorded somewhere.
'What Is Scientology?' (Church of Scientology, 1978, 1992)
'Report to Members of Parliament on Scientology' (Church of Scientology, 1969)
Corroboration: 'Bare-Faced Messiah' (Russell Miller, 1987)
Grandfather, Lafayette Waterbury, and great-grandfather, I.C. Waterbury, were both Captains in the US Navy.
Source: LRH, interview given to the Oregon Journal, April 1943.This is untrue on three counts: his great-grandfather's name was Abram ('I.C.' were his grandmother's initials) and he was never in the US Navy; nor was LRH's grandfather, Lafayette. It is inconceivable that he did not know this. Perhaps significantly, LRH does not seem to have repeated the claims after the War.
Corroboration: 'Bare-Faced Messiah' (Russell Miller, 1987)
L.R. Hubbard inheirited his fortune and family interests in America, Southern Africa, etc. Hubbard was a man of considerable means completely independent of Scientology.
'What Is Scientology?' (Church of Scientology, 1978, 1992)Frequently claimed and easily shown to be false. LRH's parents lived into the 1960s and he inherited little or no money from them. Prior to Dianetics and Scientology (i.e. pre-1950) he survived on a combination of money earned from writing pulp fiction, Navy pay and (after the war) Veterans Administration subsistence. His financial status can be judged from the following letter, dated 27 Jan 1948 concerning a demand that he repay an overpayment of $51:
'Report to Members of Parliament on Scientology' (Church of Scientology, 1969)
'I cannot imagine how to repay this $51, as I am nearly penniless and have but $28.50 to last me for nearly a month to come ... I am very much in debt and have not been able to get a job but am trying to resume my pre-war profession of professional writing. My health has been bad and I feel that if I could just get caught up financially I could write a novel which has been requested of me and so remedy my finances. It would take me three months and even then I would not be able to guarantee solvency.'(Hubbard file, VA archives)
He had no 'family interests' in America or elsewhere. The claim of 'interests' in Southern Africa appears to stem from his belief that he was a reincarnation of the 19th-century diamond magnate Cecil Rhodes. [Bare-Faced Messiah, Russell Miller, 1986]
Accounts and tax returns from various Dianetics and Scientolology organisations show that Hubbard and his family were each year creaming off huge sums (literally hundreds of thousands of dollars) from the proceeds [Report into the Practices and Effects of Scientology, Sir John Foster, 1971]. Anecdotal accounts and evidence entered in Armstrong v. Church of Scientology of California (1984) show that LRH appropriated very large sums from Scientology proceeds, estimated at up to $15,000 a week in the 1970s and one-off lump sums of millions of dollars in the 1980s.
Claims that his fortune came from writing are clearly disingenuous: he published nothing labelled as 'fiction' between 1949 and 1980, everything in between relating instead to Dianetics and Scientology. Of his output between those years, only Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health has been widely sold outside of the Church of Scientology. The Church is the sole publisher and the chief retailer of the 'millions of words' which he wrote on his 'science of the mind', even training its staff to sell Hubbard books (including fiction) as part of their 'religious duties'. Scientologists are expected to buy at least one copy of all of Hubbard's Scientology books, and preferably of his fiction works as well.
In effect, Scientology offices act as a worldwide chain selling Hubbard books, principally to Scientologists. Hubbard's considerable literary income was only made possible by the existence of the Church of Scientology; apart from Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, none of his works reached bestseller status without the Church's assistance. (The sales of Battlefield Earth are thought to have been greatly inflated by a Church-run campaign to get members to purchase multiple copies.)
CHILDHOOD
Became a blood brother of Pikuni Indians.
Befriended Calvin Coolidge Jr. [son of President].
Toured Asia, visiting Manchuria, Tibet and India, befriending warlords and bandits.
Returned to USA in 1930 on death of his grandfather.
EDUCATION
L.R. Hubbard attended Swaveley Prep. School, Manassas, Virginia and Woodward Prep. School, Washington DC, USA and Columbia College, George Washington University, Washington DC in 1932.
Enrolled in one of USA's first ever nuclear physics courses.
Attended Princeton University post-graduate.
CAREER TO 1941
1931: Acted as a director with the Caribbean Motion Picture Expedition.
1932: Conducted West Indies Minerals Survey, aged 21.
1933: Led Caribbean Motion Picture Expedition.
1933-4: Led three expeditions to Central America.
1933-41: Wrote seven million words of published fact and fiction.
1934: Led West Indies Minerals Survey Expedition in 1934.
1935: Worked in Hollywood under motion picture contracts Columbia Pictures.
Many 'screen credits' on major stars and pictures.
1938: Wrote "sensational volume", Excalibur (but never published it).
1940: Elected a member of the Explorers' Club of New York.
1940: Led Alaskan Radio Experimental Expedition for US Government.
1940: Obtained Mariners' License from US Dept. of Commerce.
CAREER 1941-45
1941: Commissioned US Naval Reserve.
Served in South Pacific.
1941: Served as a captain of corvettes.
1942: First US casualty in Far East, 1942; flown home in Secretary of Navy's private plane.
1942: Relieved by "fifteen officers of rank" and posted to North Atlantic corvettes.
1943: Commodore of corvette squadrons.
1944-45: Amphibious forces.
1944: Severely wounded and taken, crippled and blinded, to Oak Knoll Naval Hospital, CA.
1945: Served in Office of Provost Marshall, Korea.
1945: Left Oak Knoll Hospital after a year's convalescence.
Served in all five theatres of World War II. [Atlantic, Pacific, Europe, Asia & Africa.]
Awarded 21 medals and palms.
CAREER POST-WAR
No longer in Navy or on call. No draft liability as drawing full disability compensation.
1946 on: Hollywood director and writer.
1946: Broke up black magic ring in California.
1948: Wrote Dianetics: The Original Thesis
1950: Resigned commission in Navy after four years on inactive list.
1950: Wrote 'several best selling' books on applied philosophy.
1950: Wrote Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health
1950: Refused to allow US Govt to use Dianetics "to make man more suggestible".
Organized the Hubbard Foundation to handle public interests.
Became director and trustee of several international humanitarian organizations.
1953: Awarded honorary Doctor of Philosophy in recognition of Dianetics.
1954: Foundation of the first Church of Scientology.
1957: Became a Fellow of the International Oceanographic Foundation, Miami, Florida.
1959: Won Saint Hill Manor, East Grinstead, England, in poker game.
1959: Revolutionised horticulture by finding that plants feel pain.
1965: L. Ron Hubbard elected to membership in National Geographic Society.
1965: Achievement of 'The World's First Real Clear'.
1967: Founded Sea Org and embarked on voyage to research past civilisations and past lives.
1967: OT III ["The Wall Of Fire"] released at Las Palmas, Canary Islands.
| A Brief Biography of L. Ron Hubbard, 1959 |
| Explorer's Log, Explorer's Journal, Feb. 1960 |
| Facts About L. Ron Hubbard, Flag Divisional Directive of 8 Mar 1974 |
| Mission Into Time, 1973, pp. |
 | Oregon Journal, interview with LRH, 22 April 1943 |
| A Report to Members of Parliament on Scientology, 1969, pp. 9-10 |
| Statement by Church of Scientology, December 1969 |
| What Is Scientology?, 1978 pp. , 1992 pp. . |
 | www.scientology.org (Scientology Web site), 1996. |