“The first principle of my own philosophy,” wrote L. Ron Hubbard, “is that wisdom is meant for anyone who wishes to reach for it. It is the servant of the commoner and king alike and should never be regarded with awe.” To this he added that philosophy must be capable of application, for “Learning locked in mildewed books is of little use to anyone and therefore of no value unless it can be used.” Finally, he declared philosophic knowledge to be only of value if true and workable, and thereby set the parameters for Dianetics and Scientology.
How L. Ron Hubbard came to found these subjects is an immense story that effectively began in the first decades of the twentieth century with his befriending of indigenous Blackfoot Indians in and around his Helena, Montana, home. Notable among these people was a full-fledged tribal medicine man, locally known as Old Tom. In what ultimately constituted a rare bond, the six-year-old Ron was both honored with the status of blood brother and instilled with an appreciation of a profoundly distinguished spiritual heritage.
What may be seen as the next milestone came in 1923 when a twelve-year-old L. Ron Hubbard began a study of Freudian theory with a Commander Joseph C. Thompson—the first United States naval officer to study with Freud in Vienna. Although Mr. Hubbard was never to accept psychoanalysis per se, the exposure was once again pivotal. For if nothing else, he later wrote, Freud had at least advanced the idea that, “something could be done about the mind.”
The third crucial step of this journey lay in Asia, where Mr. Hubbard finally spent the better part of two years in travel and study. There, he became one of the few Americans to gain admittance to the fabled Tibetan lamaseries in the Western Hills of China and actually studied with the last in the line of magicians from the court of Kublai Khan. Yet however enthralling such adventures may have seemed, he would finally admit to finding nothing either workable or predictable as regards the human mind and spirit. (More)
I like to help others and count it as my greatest pleasure in life to see a person free himself of the shadows which darken his days.— Scientology Founder, L. Ron Hubbard