L. Ron Hubbard

Founder of the Scientology religion

No more fitting statement typifies the life of L. Ron Hubbard than his sample declaration: “I like to help others and count it as my greatest pleasure in life to see a person free himself from the shadows which darken his days.” Behind those pivotal words stands a lifetime of service to mankind and a legacy of wisdom that enables anyone to attain long-cherished dreams of happiness and spiritual freedom. “I like to help others and count it as my greatest pleasure in life to see a person free himself from the shadows which darken his days.” — L. Ron Hubbard Born in Tilden, Nebraska, on March 13, 1911, his road of discovery and dedication to his fellows began at an early age. “I wanted other people to be happy, and could not understand why they weren’t,” he wrote of his youth; and therein lay the sentiments that would long guide his steps. By the age of 19, he had travelled more than a quarter of a million miles, examining the cultures of Java, India and the Philippines. Returning to the United States in 1929, L. Ron Hubbard resumed his formal education and studied mathematics, engineering and the new field of nuclear physics — all providing vital tools for continued research. To finance that research, he embarked upon a literary career in the early 1930s and soon became one of the most widely read authors of popular fiction. Yet never losing sight of his primary goal, he continued his mainline research through extensive travel and expedition. With the advent of World War II, he entered the United States Navy as a lieutenant (junior grade) and served as commander of antisubmarine corvettes. Left partially blind and lame from injuries sustained during combat, he was diagnosed as permanently disabled by 1945. Through application of his theories on the mind, however, he was not only able to help fellow servicemen, but also to regain his own health. After five more years of intensive research, Mr. Hubbard’s discoveries were presented to the world in Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health. The first popular handbook on the human mind expressly written for the man in the street,Dianetics ushered in a new era of hope for mankind and a new phase of life for its author. He did not, however, cease his research, and as breakthrough after breakthrough were carefully codified through late 1951, the applied religion of Scientology was born. Because Scientology explains the whole of life, there is no aspect of man’s existence that Mr. Hubbard’s subsequent work did not address. Residing variously in the United States and England, his continued research brought forth solutions to such social ills as declining educational standards and pandemic drug abuse. All told, Mr. Hubbard’s works on Scientology and Dianetics total 40 million words of recorded lectures, books and writings. Together, these constitute the legacy of a lifetime that ended on January 24, 1986. Yet the passing of L. Ron Hubbard in no way constituted an end; for with a hundred million copies of books in circulation and millions of people daily applying his technologies for betterment, it can truly be said the world still has no greater friend.

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.— ScientologyFounder, L. Ron Hubbard