L. Ron Hubbard
Scientology is the work of one man: L. Ron Hubbard. He
described his philosophy in more than 5,000 writings, including dozens of books, and in 3,000 tape-recorded lectures. “The philosopher,” said Mr. Hubbard, “ordinarily spends most of his working years in his ivory tower and is pretty well insulated from life. To know life you've got to be part of life, you must get down there and look, you must get into the nooks and crannies of existence, and you must rub elbows with all kinds and types of men before you can finally establish what man is.”
In his long and active life, L. Ron Hubbard did just that.
Born in Tilden, Nebraska on March 13, 1911, L. Ron Hubbard spent his early childhood in Montana. He became a blood brother to the Blackfeet Indians when he was a young boy, and at the age of 13 became an Eagle Scout – the youngest ever to receive that distinction. As a teenager he traveled extensively in the Far East and Asia, where he witnessed great suffering and also found great wisdom locked away in temples and monasteries. Moved by these experiences he resolved to find the answers to the human condition – answers that could be known and used by anyone to improve life. He dedicated his life to that purpose.
After college in the United States, Mr. Hubbard led a number of expeditions and studied firsthand primitive cultures to discover the common denominators of all life. His many adventures served him well as a writer during the 1930s', when the appearance of his name on the cover of the popular magazines of the day would send their circulations soaring. He used the income from these works to finance his serious research into man.
He was searching for a principle that would lead to an alignment of knowledge and explain the meaning of existence – something philosophers had set out to find in the past without success.
At the outbreak of World War II, Mr. Hubbard was commissioned as a lieutenant in the United States Navy and served as a commander of corvettes. Deeply affected by what he experienced and witnessed during the war, he redoubled his efforts to create a saner world.
The 1950 publication of Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health first focused
world attention on L. Ron Hubbard and his research. This book marked a turning point in history because it provided the first workable technology to the problems of the mind, the first real hope that something could be done about the causes of irrational behavior and what stopped man from reaching his true potential and real happiness. Dianetics became an overnight bestseller and has remained so year after year for more than four decades, selling over 16 million copies.
There still remained unsolved questions regarding the nature of the human being himself, puzzles concerning life. And so Mr. Hubbard's research expanded to encompass the true nature of
man and the human spirit. From this research came the applied religious philosophy of Scientology.
L. Ron Hubbard has received thousands of awards and recognitions from individuals and groups around the world. Today there are millions of people from all walks of life who consider they have no greater friend.
