Scientology in the United Kingdom: Part 1 - 1950s

[Chris Owen]

Scientology in the United Kingdom

1. Early Years: 1950-1960

The Church of Scientology has a well-earned reputation as an
archetypal "Hollywood cult", beloved of movie starlets and
freewheeling Californians. It is a carefully-cultivated image,
reinforced by the regular promotional use of such genuinely major
figures such as John Travolta and Tom Cruise. The organisation's
founder L. Ron Hubbard was, of course, an American and it cannot be
denied that the organisation is dominated by Americans and run from
the United States. Yet, surprisingly, the United States arguably did
not have the greatest effect on Scientology's development. That
distinction falls to the United Kingdom, the improbable spiritual home
of the Church of Scientology.

In June 1950, Hubbard published Dianetics: The Modern Science of
Mental Health in the United States to a mixture of catcalls from
scientists and doctors, who saw Dianetics as little more than
quackery, and applause from members of the public, who saw it as a
revolutionary do-it-yourself psychotherapeutic technique. The book
rapidly became a bestseller, Dianetics a cause celébre and Hubbard an
overnight celebrity. Thousands of Dianetics groups sprang up across
the United States, with Hubbard establishing Dianetics Foundations to
coordinate and, highly profitably, to train would-be Dianeticists.
Hubbard's spectacular success in the US inevitably found echoes
overseas, principally in the English-speaking world - Canada, the
United Kingdom, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. However,
Dianetics was not a great success outside the US. It appears to have
escaped the attention of the national UK press and Hubbard's name
remained largely unknown for years to come. Nonetheless, it did manage
to attract a small but loyal band of adherents, and several Dianetics
groups were started spontaneously - five in London, others in Bristol,
Chorley, Hull, Glasgow and elsewhere.

Dianetics in the UK faced many difficulties that severely hampered its
growth. The biggest was, of course, the fact that the Dianetic
Foundations established by Hubbard had no presence in the UK or,
indeed, anywhere outside of North America. Professional Dianetics
training was only available from Hubbard's Foundations in America, but
the high cost of attending those courses deterred all but the
wealthiest British Dianeticists. A further complication was the fact
that the only way to obtain official Dianetics material (including the
original book itself) was to import it, but post-war currency exchange
and import restrictions made this a difficult and expensive task. For
the most part, Foundation publications ended up being retyped by hand
and circulated amongst enthusiasts. It was largely because of this
problem that a loose organisation, the British Dianetic Association
(BDA), was set up to coordinate the reproduction and distribution of
Foundation materials for British Dianeticists. The size of its
membership rolls illustrates the tiny impact of Dianetics in Britain:
by the time it was wound up in June 1951, only eighty to ninety people
were members. Even so, Dianetics was markedly more successful in the
UK than anywhere else outside of North America.

The BDA was succeeded by what was intended to be a more soundly
established organisation, the Dianetic Association Ltd, incorporated
to facilitate the distribution of material and establish a Dianetic
library. A somewhat edited British edition of Dianetics: The Modern
Science of Mental Health was published through Derricke Ridgway Ltd, a
publisher of esoteric books (other books in the same range included
such titles as "The Psychology of the Occult"). However, it was felt
by many Dianeticists that this loose umbrella organisation did not go
far enough towards resolving the problems of communication and
coordination which were hindering Dianetics' development. One of
London's larger groups, the Dianetics Study Group, proposed creating a
federation of Dianetic groups throughout the country:

With a view to creating an organization which would be consonant with
Hubbard's democratic and humanist principles, in which the voice of
every minority would be given full, fair and balanced representation,
and would steadily work up to professional standards. [1]

In June 1952, a Dianetic Federation of Great Britain was formed, which
subsequently absorbed the Dianetic Association Ltd. It exercised
little or no practical control over the various groups under its
umbrella, many of which guarded their independence jealously; its role
was primarily confined, as had been its predecessors', to organising
the distribution of material from America.

How much longer that material would continue to be produced was an
open question at the time, as the Dianetics movement in the US
appeared to be on the verge of collapse. The Dianetic Foundations been
declared bankrupt, and Hubbard had fallen out with his erstwhile
backer Don Purcell, who had gained control of the commercial rights to
Dianetics (although Hubbard did eventually regain them). In the
meantime, Hubbard temporarily abandoned Dianetics, moved to Phoenix,
Arizona and established Scientology, "the science of the mind". It was
at this time a purely secular movement - the first Church of
Scientology was not established until December 1953. After his
experiences with the relatively uncoordinated and fissiparous Dianetic
Foundations, Hubbard was determined from the outset to make
Scientology a tightly organised entity under his exclusive control.
Within only a few years, he had established the system of contracts
and franchises which still underlies much of Scientology's
organisational structure; he ensured that his own interests were taken
care of by requiring all Scientology organisations to "tithe" him 10%
of the income.

At this time, Scientology had no official presence in the UK and
Dianetics was still outside of Hubbard's control. He undoubtedly knew
of the formation of the Dianetic Federation of Great Britain (DFGB)
and regarded it as a threat to his own control of the movement. Around
July or August 1952, Hubbard wrote to a British Dianeticist not
involved in the leadership of the DFGB, and asked her to establish a
Hubbard Dianetic Foundation in Britain, as a profit rather than
non-profit corporation, and under his complete control through the
Arizona-based Hubbard Association of Scientologists. He made clear in
his letters to her that he blamed the failure of the original Dianetic
Foundations his lack of complete control over them. British
Dianeticists were, naturally, concerned for their independence; the
DFGB commented in its newsletter that his "proposal re control would
not necessarily be acceptable to all British Dianeticists." [2] Their
fears of Hubbard's intentions were justified, as the "full, fair and
balanced representation" sought by British Dianeticians had no
attractions for him. He had no desire for members or co-directors with
voting rights in Scientology organisations and saw no virtues in the
small independent groups around which Dianetics was organized in
Britain. Accordingly, he sought to supplant them by establishing a
strong central organisation which would supplant them and capture
their membership. [3] He portrayed it rather differently, of course; a
few years later he claimed that it was more a matter of him being
invited to sort out the organisational confusion which supposedly
existed in Britain:

Now, all of this activity in England had gotten to a point where
several organizations were at each other's throats. There were several
organizations, and several groups, and they were all in disagreement
with one another. And it was very easy for me to get an invitation to
straighten this out. [4]

With Europe's first Scientology organisation well on the way to being
established, Hubbard made his first trip to Britain - and to Europe -
in September 1952, accompanied by his pregnant wife Mary Sue. His
principal reason for being present was, it would seem, to supervise
the establishment of the London Scientology organisation, although one
official Scientology account claims that the real reason was that
"Amid the constant violence of the turncoat Don J. Purcell of Wichita
and his suits which attempted to seize Scientology, Mary Sue became
ill and to save her life, Ron took her to England." [5]

London in 1952 was still feeling the after-effects of the Second World
War. Shortages continued to bite, with rationing still in force - it
did not end until 1954 - and large areas of the city were in ruins
following five years of enemy bombardment. Perhaps more importantly
for the Hubbard, the economic situation was very much less favourable
than in the US - the average Briton had far less disposable income
than his American counterpart. Britain was also far more insular than
it is today. Although American culture had made major inroads after
ten years of hosting US servicemen, there was still a deep cultural
conservatism and disdain for "foreign" culture. This was particularly
apparent amongst the close-knit upper and middle class public servants
who made up Britain's legendary Establishment, and this inherent
conservatism was later to have important consequences for Hubbard and
Scientology.

Fortunately for Hubbard, he did not have to suffer first-hand the
effects of post-war austerity, save for the lack of his favourite
cigarettes (for which he cabled home: "SEND MORE KOOLS"). The local
Dianeticists rented for him a large Edwardian villa at 30 Marlborough
Place in St John's Wood, an up-market part of northwest London near
the northern edge of Regent's Park. Hubbard made Marlborough Place his
centre of operations for the next three months, giving regular
demonstrations of Dianetics and Scientology auditing. The Hubbard
Association of Scientologists was duly formed and, as Hubbard had
expected, it had an immediate effect - independent groups rapidly fell
apart as their members moved across to the HAS. Hubbard's organisation
had the overwhelming advantage of having immediate access to official
Dianetics/Scientology publications and training, which at a stroke
removed the raison d'être of the DFGB. However, not every group packed
up overnight, as a few holdouts continued to resist Hubbard.
Relentless pressure eventually ground them down until the demise, in
the summer of August 1955, of the last surviving independent
organisation, the Bristol Dianetic Group. Hubbard, typically,
commented darkly on the "strange finances" that had sustained it for
so long.

In the autumn of 1952, Scientology came to the attention of the
British authorities for the first time. On 31 October, Hubbard wrote a
letter to the Home Office Aliens Department (responsible for the
affairs of foreign visitors in the UK) describing the valuable work he
was doing and mentioning the difficulties that he was having with the
independent Dianetics groups. It is not clear what provoked this
letter, which unfortunately is no longer extant, but it is likely that
it was intended to justify his continued presence in the UK. The Home
Office was uncertain, as officials had no idea what "Dianetics" or
"Scientology" were or what Hubbard's work entailed. What they
discovered on further investigation made them deeply sceptical of
Hubbard. Scientology, wrote one official, "appears to be merely a
pseudo-scientific venture without solid basis". As a result of these
findings, Hubbard was not permitted to extend his visa; his
immigration status was to be a bone of contention for the next five
years.

One member of the Hubbard family at least had no immigration problems
- born three weeks after her parents' arrival in the UK, Diana
Meredith de Wolfe Hubbard was automatically a British subject. The
adult Hubbards were not so lucky and with the expiration of their
permission to stay in November 1952, Hubbard, Mary Sue and the baby
travelled back to the United States to deliver a series of lectures on
Scientology in Philadelphia. It was somewhat marred by Hubbard's
arrest on 16 December, accused of wrongfully withdrawing $9,286 from
the bankrupt Wichita Dianetics Foundation. He was quickly brought
before the bankruptcy court, agreed to make restitution and was
discharged.

Perhaps because of this spot of legal bother, he very soon afterwards
flew back to London on a fresh visa, where he completed the
Philadelphia lectures. It was probably as a result of his immigration
problems that he felt the need to burnish his credentials, to convince
officialdom that he was a serious individual and not just a dubious
crackpot. On 27 February, he sent an urgent telegram to an associate
in Los Angeles:

"PLEASE INFORM DR HOUGH PHD VERY ACCEPTABLE. PRIVATELY TO YOU. FOR
GOSH SAKES EXPEDITE. WORK HERE UTTERLY DEPENDENT ON IT. CABLE REPLY.
RON" [6]

Dr Joseph Hough was the proprietor of a notorious "degree mill", the
self-proclaimed "Sequoia University", which bestowed degrees on
applicants in exchange for a suitable monetary consideration. Hubbard
duly acquired, the following day, a dubious "Doctorate of Divinity"
and an even more dubious "Doctor of Scientology". Other Scientologists
soon found "doctorates" liberally bestowed upon them.

However, the sceptical British public showed little interest in the
discoveries of "Dr" Hubbard, as he now styled himself. In an
"Associate Newsletter" sent to Scientologists in May 1953, he declared
that

the general public is hardly aware that [Scientology] exists and I
have just made probably the most disastrous lecture in terms of
attendance in the city of Birmingham up in the middle of England.
There were 100 people present, and every one of them was deeply
interested in the subject and well advised about it. They probably
constituted all the people in that area who had even heard of it and
they were well informed of it, but as far as general public attendance
or any curiosity audience is concerned, it didn't exist. In view of
the fact that the lecture was given in the Town Hall which seats
anything up to 2,500 or 3,000 people, this 100 made about the emptiest
looking hall you ever wanted to stare at from a lecture platform. [7]

Things were little better in London. Scientology's official presence
there was entirely on a par with its modest means: a couple of
draughty rooms above a shop at 163 Holland Park Avenue, near
Shepherd's Bush in west London. The area, then as now, was distinctly
run-down. Helen O'Brien, who at the time managed the Philadelphia
Scientology franchise, received a dismal first-hand description of the
shabby building from a friend who visited the HAS offices in London:

There was an atmosphere of extreme poverty and undertones of a grim
conspiracy over all. At 163 Holland Park Avenue was an ill-lit lecture
room and a bare-boarded and poky office some eight by ten feet, mainly
infested by long-haired men and short-haired, tatty women. [8]

Hubbard himself remained ensconced mainly at Marlborough Place,
operating for a short time from a house at 4 Marylebone High Street,
until returning to the United States in the autumn of 1953 when his
visa ran out once more. His return to his home turf marked one of the
most momentous changes in Scientology's history: its conversion into a
religion. He was candid, at least in private, about why he wanted to
make the change. In a letter of 10 April 1953 sent to Helen O'Brien,
he wrote:

We want to ... 1. knock psychotherapy into history and 2. make enough
money to shine up my operating scope and 3. keep the HAS solvent. It
is a problem of practical business.

I await your reaction on the religion angle. In my opinion, we
couldn't get worse public opinion than we have had or have less
customers with what we've got to sell. [9]

The "religion angle" was deemed sufficiently promising for Hubbard to
incorporate the Church of Scientology and Church of Spiritual
Technology in Camden, New Jersey in December 1953 (the "Founding"
Church of Scientology in Washington, DC was in fact not incorporated
until the following February). However, little effort was made to
standardise the new structure worldwide for another decade, and the
Hubbard Association of Scientologists International (HASI) remained
the backbone of the Scientology organisation outside of the United
States. Within the US, the controlling organisation was the Hubbard
Association of Scientologists, based in Phoenix, Arizona, while on the
west coast Scientology came under the management of the Church of
Scientology of California. Hubbard explained to associate
Scientologists why this divergence of approaches existed: "In
California we are most acceptable as a religion" [10] - it was wiser,
presumably, to wear a secular face elsewhere. In Britain, there
certainly seems to have been little effort to portray Scientology as a
religion until well into the 1960s; it did not operate as the Church
of Scientology until as late as the summer of 1967.

At the end of September 1955, the Hubbard family once again moved back
to London. Hubbard set up home and an office - the Hubbard
Communications Office, soon to become the nerve centre of Scientology
worldwide - at 83 Palace Gardens Terrace, just off Notting Hill. At
the time, it was not a particularly fashionable part of town. It was
an ethnically mixed area, having become the centre of one of London's
largest communities of West Indian immigrants. Hubbard's new home was
an apartment in a block built during the inter-war years opposite what
is now the Czech Embassy, just up from the much plusher line of houses
leading towards Kensington Palace. London's Scientologists, too, moved
into more comfortable quarters when the decrepit Scientology office in
Holland Park Avenue relocated in 1956. Thanks to the assistance of a
well-off Scientologist businessman, spacious and much more central
offices were found at 35/37 Fitzroy Street, about a mile north of
Oxford Circus and only a short distance from the present-day location
of London's Scientology organisation.

Scientology's increasing prosperity was due, to a large extent, to its
increasingly effective exploitation of social angst - a tactic at
which it excels to this day. Borrowing a phrase from the Grade 0
Scientology course, Hubbard ran an advertisement in London's evening
newspapers along the lines of: "Personal counselling. I will talk to
anyone for you about anything. Phone Rev. So-and-so between
hour-and-hour." [11] The response was immediate and, as Hubbard said,
"extremely successful". Hubbard's associate and friend, Ray Kemp,
later recalled: "We were inundated with calls - everyone from
potential suicides to a girl who couldn't decide which of three men to
marry." [12] In marked contrast to the Samaritans, the priority for
Scientologists was not help but recruitment, as Hubbard made
abundantly clear:

If it is the purpose of the minister simply to solve the problem of
the preclear thus phoning, he can of course cancel out his clientele
with the greatest of ease. This however is not his purpose. His
purpose is to get this individual into a weekly group processing unit.
[13]

The success of this approach prompted Hubbard to use even more
distasteful methods of recruitment, which - fortunately for him - was
does not seem to have been noticed by officialdom. Readers of London's
small ads columns in the mid-50s would have seen the following
advertisement, which Hubbard dubbed "Illness Researches":

Polio victims. A research foundation, investigating polio desires
volunteers suffering from the after effects of that illness to call
for examination at address. [14]

Upon arriving for the "examination," the polio sufferer would be given
three hours of auditing. Some Scientologists were evidently uneasy
about this unscrupulous tactic:

And here is this British Scientologist who has been in practice for
years standing there in front of my desk and asking me in a surprised
tone of voice whether or not we could do anything for polio or other
types of illnesses. This man is reputed to have more success with
auditing than many others. But if he has not learned that we can
alleviate the majority of any illness in any series (as distinct from
curing all cases into a state of perfection), then what does this man
think we are doing? Does he think that Scientology is a swindle? He
must! [15]

Hubbard's expansion of his activities into areas more commonly
associated with medicine was directly related to a significant change
of heart that he underwent at around this time. Dianetics had provoked
considerable criticism from doctors and psychiatrists, many of who
were unsparing in their critiques of Hubbard's ideas. Hubbard did not
initially retaliate in kind, but instead professed a lofty
indifference towards the medical profession:

[Psychologists, psychiatrists and medical doctors] are entirely in
error when they express the opinion that Scientologists are against
them. Scientology does not consider them sufficiently important to be
against ... We have no more quarrel with a psychologist than we would
have with an Australian witch doctor. We have no quarrel with a
psychiatrist any more than we should quarrel with a barbarian because
he had never heard of nuclear physics ... Scientology cares nothing
about either medicine or psychiatry. [16]

His attitude changed abruptly only a few months later after he issued
that statement, when in July 1955 he wrote to the FBI to denounce what
he believed was an "attack made by psychiatrists using evidently
Communist connected personnel". [17] The last straw for Hubbard
appears to have been the arrest in Phoenix, Arizona of an elderly
Scientologist, Edd Clark, for allegedly practicing medicine without a
license - probably as the result of a complaint by a medical
professional. A further outraged letter was despatched to the FBI,
followed by the public issuing of a de facto declaration of war
against psychiatry:

Nearly all the backlash in society against Dianetics and Scientology
has a common source - the psychiatrist-psychologist-psychoanalyst
clique ... I could tell you about three actual murders. I could tell
you about long strings of psychotics run in on the Foundation and the
Association, sent in to us by psychiatrists who then, using LSD and
pain-drug-hypnosis, spun them and told everyone Dianetics and
Scientology drove people insane ... The public utterly LOATHES
psychiatry. You waste time if you try to defame psychiatry to the
public ... Psychiatry stands in the public mind for ineffectiveness,
lies and inhuman brutality. [18]

Declaring that "we are overtly intent upon assimilating every function
[medicine and psychiatry] are now performing", Hubbard had set the
stage for an all-out war between Scientology and the mental health
profession around the world.

At the start of 1956, Hubbard's immigration status yet again came
under official scrutiny as the activities of Scientology expanded.
After being informed that he would be required to leave, Home Office
civil servants noted that "strong representations" in his favour were
being made to the Home Secretary. Hubbard told Scientologists that "a
great many friends, some of them in higher places, are pitching in to
straighten this out" [19], these friends apparently including "three
lords and the leader of the opposition [then Hugh Gaitskell] in the
House of Commons" [20]. In response, the Home Office made further
enquiries into the worth of Hubbard's work, commissioning Special
Branch - the section of Scotland Yard responsible for
counter-subversion and liaison with the secret services - to conduct a
discreet investigation of Hubbard's finances. The views of the
Ministry of Health were also sought, marking the first time that the
medical validity of Scientology had been investigated by the British
authorities. A noted academic psychiatrist, Professor Aubrey Lewis of
the University of London, reviewed Hubbard's works on Dianetics but
was not impressed; "a farrago of nonsense," "sheer quackery" and "no
scientific basis" were his conclusions. Sir John Charles of the
Ministry of Health pronounced the official verdict:

It seems quite clear that this man is a charlatan and that neither he
nor his association are likely to be of any benefit to this country.
[21]

To his evident disgust, Hubbard was told to leave, although his
departure ended up being somewhat delayed by his summoning as a
witness in a serious criminal trial. He left for Ireland with his
friend Ray Kemp to set up a Scientology operation there, firing
parting shots at "Communist-infiltrated England, where Russia has been
active with anti-American propaganda in order to rob the crown of its
only powerful ally to ready a later banquet for the Russian bear." He
promised, however, that he would be back soon "as enough British brass
has interceded on my behalf to permit me on occasion to pop into
London", promising great things from his latest discovery - "now we've
got our hands on the monopoly of radiation healing throughout the
world". [22]

With a change of immigration rules in 1957, permitting foreigners to
remain indefinitely if they had sufficient means to support
themselves, Hubbard returned to the UK semi-permanently. Although he
claimed an abashed U-turn on the part of the Government - "the British
government said, 'Hubbard? Hubbard? Why, yes, he can have a visa as
long as he likes. Yes. Fine chap, fine chap, you know.'" [23] - the
reality was that Home Office officials had been very reluctant to
permit Hubbard to stay, but recognised that the new rules no longer
gave them discretion to refuse.

Having established a strong Scientology presence in the country,
Hubbard turned his full-time attention to "proofing" people against
radiation and developing what he claimed was a revolutionary new
technique to cure radiation sickness and cancer. In April 1957 he
hired the Royal Empire Society Hall in Trafalgar Square to address the
"London Congress on Nuclear Radiation and Health", which was attended
by some 400 Scientologists. His lectures were transcribed and issued
as a book, All About Radiation, supposedly written "by a doctor and a
nuclear physicist [Hubbard]". It accompanied by a promotional campaign
for his "anti-radiation" vitamin compound, Dianazene. When the US Food
and Drug Administration became aware of Hubbard's promotion of
Dianazene in 1958, it seized and destroyed a consignment of 21,000
tablets on the grounds of mislabelling.

Hubbard's finances, which had so interested Special Branch, also
proved problematic in the United States. The Church of Scientology had
gained tax exemption in 1956 but this was withdrawn in 1958, as a
result of what was termed "inurement"; that is, supposedly charitable
funds had been siphoned off by Hubbard and his family for their
personal enrichment, to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
This marked a fundamental breakdown in relations between the United
States Government and Scientology. The long series of letters to the
FBI from Hubbard ceased abruptly, as Hubbard put into effect his
policy of "disconnection" from "suppressive" elements - in this case,
the United States Government.

At the same time as he was solving the problem of atomic war, Hubbard
was revealing the startling scope of past lives supposedly experienced
by Scientologists. In October 1958, he assembled a group of
approximately seventy Scientologists at Scientology's Fitzroy Street
offices for the 5th London Advanced Clearing Course - the low numbers
were indicative of the small size of Scientology's hard core
membership in the UK. The outcome was published in an extremely
strange book named Have You Lived Before This Life?, an account of the
past lives claimed by the course's attendees. The "purely scientific"
book included tales of how Scientologists had lived as abstract
geometric shapes, fought in intergalactic wars and even been lynched
by road-roller-driving Martian bishops wielding "zap guns". The tenor
of the book can perhaps be guessed by the fact that the most commonly
reported cause of death was falling out of spaceships. It appears to
have been a fairly jolly occasion. One attendee, Cyril Vosper, later
recalled:

There was a good deal of rivalry as to who could dig up the most
notable or extraordinary past life. Jesus of Nazareth was very
popular. At least three London Scientologists claimed to have
uncovered incidents in which they were crucified and rose from the
dead to save the world. Queen Elizabeth I, Walter Raleigh and the
venerable Bede were also popular. [24]

After a brief visit to Washington, Hubbard and his family - by now he
had four young children - returned to London in February 1959, moving
into the former home of Ray Kemp on the Finchley Road in Golders
Green. He was not an ideal tenant, though, as Pam Kemp recalled:

He stiffed us for the rent and he stiffed the greengrocer. Before they
moved in, the greengrocer on the other side of the road asked us if he
could trust the new tenants and we said "Of course." Ron proceeded to
run up a huge bill which he never paid. And he never paid us any rent.
We asked him dozens of times for the money. He told us to ask Mary Sue
and she always said they didn't have any money. [25]

Hubbard, however, certainly was not poverty-stricken - his gross
receipts for the fiscal year ending June 1956 had amounted to
$102,604, a small fortune in those days.[26] His growing prosperity
was clearly visible - Cyril Vosper noticed that the flashy American
clothes formerly favoured by Hubbard had been replaced by expensive
Saville Row suits and silk shirts. In fact, Hubbard was saving his
pennies for something else entirely. To the general astonishment of
his immediate colleagues, he announced in the spring of 1959 that he
had purchased the former home of the Maharajah of Jaipur at Saint Hill
Manor, near East Grinstead, Sussex, for a price which was declared to
the Inland Revenue as being £17,707.7/6 (then $42,494). This was to
become the worldwide headquarters of Scientology as well as the
Hubbard family's own luxurious abode. By this time, however, storm
clouds had already begun to gather over Hubbard and his organisation;
it was not long before they broke.

[1] Undated letter from Secretary Dianetic Study Group, N.W.3, to
other Dianeticists, probably early 1952; quoted in Roy Wallis, The
Road to Total Freedom
[2] 'British dianetics - the present position', Epicentre: Bulletin of
the Dianetic Federation of Great Britain, no. 2 (September 1952), p. 1
[3] Quoted in Roy Wallis, The Road to Total Freedom
[4] Hubbard, "Opening Lecture", lecture of 1 January 1960
[5] Quoted in Russell Miller, Bare-Faced Messiah, chapter 12 p. 207
[6] Cable of 27 February 1953, reproduced in Russell Miller,
Bare-Faced Messiah
[7] Hubbard, Associate Newsletter No. 3, ca. mid-May 1953
[8] Helen O'Brien, Dianetics in Limbo
[9] Hubbard, letter to Helen O'Brien, 10 April 1953
[10] Hubbard, associate newsletter, 10 March 1954
[11] Hubbard, "Three Methods Of Dissemination", Operational Bulletin
No. 14, 24 January 1956
[12] Russell Miller, interview with Ray & Pam Kemp, August 1986
[13] Hubbard, "Three Methods Of Dissemination", Operational Bulletin
No. 14, 24 January 1956
[14] ibid.
[15] Hubbard, Operational Bulletin No. 14, 24 January 1956
[16] Hubbard, "The Scientologist: A Manual on the Dissemination of
Material",
Ability Major 1, ca. March 1955
[17] Hubbard, letter to FBI, 7 September 1955
[18] Hubbard, Professional Auditor's Bulletin no. 62, "Psychiatrists",
30 September 1955
[19] Hubbard, Operational Bulletin no. 16, "Scientology U.S.", 7
February 1956
[20] Hubbard, Operational Bulletin no. 16, "Scientology U.S.", 7
February 1956
[21] Sir John Charles, internal Ministry of Health memo, 29 Feb 1956
[22] Hubbard, Professional Auditor's Bulletin 74, "Office in Ireland",
6 March 1956
[23] Hubbard, "Opening Lecture", lecture of 1 January 1960
[24] Cyril Vosper, The Mind Benders, chapter 5
[25] Russell Miller, interview with Ray & Pam Kemp, August 1986
[26] Founding Church of Scientology v. US Court of Claims No. 22-61

| Chris Owen - ronthe...@OISPAMNOyahoo.co.uk |
|---------------------------------------------------------------|
| THE TRUTH ABOUT L. RON HUBBARD AND THE UNITED STATES NAVY |
| http://www.ronthewarhero.org |

["El Roto"]

"Chris Owen" <ronthe...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:f758becc.01100...@posting.google.com...

> Scientology in the United Kingdom
>
> 1. Early Years: 1950-1960
>
> The Church of Scientology has a well-earned reputation as an
> archetypal "Hollywood cult", beloved of movie starlets and
> freewheeling Californians.

snipped for bandwidth

Mr. Owen, you are a treasure. Thank you.

Steve G.

[Dave Bird]

In article<f758becc.01100...@posting.google.com>, Chris Owen

<ronthe...@yahoo.co.uk> writes:
>Scientology in the United Kingdom
>
>1. Early Years: 1950-1960
>
>The Church of Scientology has a well-earned reputation as an
>archetypal "Hollywood cult", beloved of movie starlets and
>freewheeling Californians. It is a carefully-cultivated image,
>reinforced by the regular promotional use of such genuinely major
>figures such as John Travolta and Tom Cruise. The organisation's
>founder L. Ron Hubbard was, of course, an American and it cannot be
>denied that the organisation is dominated by Americans and run from
>the United States. Yet, surprisingly, the United States arguably did
>not have the greatest effect on Scientology's development. That
>distinction falls to the United Kingdom, the improbable spiritual home
>of the Church of Scientology.

This is a deeply impressive work, comparable to an extra hundred
pages of Bare Faced Messiah describing the specifically UK scene.

--
Dave Bird, an official ARS HakeMonger ><_'> <_"
(licensed to mung pelagic fish and clams of all kinds upon the Internet)
"If turbot be the food of hate, Lay on MacErrel and, by damn,
Cry HADDOCK and let loose the cods of war!" Wm Skatesfin

[Boudewijn van Ingen]

On 9 Oct 2001 17:50:54 -0700, ronthe...@yahoo.co.uk (Chris Owen) wrote:

Excellent work, Chris.

Allow me one addition and an accompanying question, near the end. Not very
relevant to the English scene perhaps, but still. ;-)

>Scientology in the United Kingdom
>
>1. Early Years: 1950-1960
>
>The Church of Scientology has a well-earned reputation as an
>archetypal "Hollywood cult", beloved of movie starlets and
>freewheeling Californians. It is a carefully-cultivated image,
>reinforced by the regular promotional use of such genuinely major
>figures such as John Travolta and Tom Cruise. The organisation's
>founder L. Ron Hubbard was, of course, an American and it cannot be
>denied that the organisation is dominated by Americans and run from
>the United States. Yet, surprisingly, the United States arguably did
>not have the greatest effect on Scientology's development. That
>distinction falls to the United Kingdom, the improbable spiritual home
>of the Church of Scientology.
>
>In June 1950, Hubbard published Dianetics: The Modern Science of
>Mental Health in the United States to a mixture of catcalls from
>scientists and doctors, who saw Dianetics as little more than
>quackery, and applause from members of the public, who saw it as a
>revolutionary do-it-yourself psychotherapeutic technique. The book

>rapidly became a bestseller, Dianetics a cause celebre and Hubbard an

>removed the raison d'etre of the DFGB. However, not every group packed

During this visit Hubbard organized the 'Clearing Congress Lectures' at the
Shoreham Hotel in Washington DC, on july 4 and 5. The series of six lectures
that he gave there were filmed and (later) sold to members of the Co$.

Nowadays they are available from the $cientology organisation as a set of
six videotapes. Alternatively the text of the lectures can be found on
several websites and there also copies of the actual footage available on
the Internet and on CD.

I would be most interested to find out if anyone knows anything about the
attendance at these lectures.

> Hubbard and his family - by now he
>had four young children - returned to London in February 1959, moving
>into the former home of Ray Kemp on the Finchley Road in Golders
>Green. He was not an ideal tenant, though, as Pam Kemp recalled:
>
>He stiffed us for the rent and he stiffed the greengrocer. Before they
>moved in, the greengrocer on the other side of the road asked us if he
>could trust the new tenants and we said "Of course." Ron proceeded to
>run up a huge bill which he never paid. And he never paid us any rent.
>We asked him dozens of times for the money. He told us to ask Mary Sue
>and she always said they didn't have any money. [25]
>
>Hubbard, however, certainly was not poverty-stricken - his gross
>receipts for the fiscal year ending June 1956 had amounted to
>$102,604, a small fortune in those days.[26] His growing prosperity
>was clearly visible - Cyril Vosper noticed that the flashy American
>clothes formerly favoured by Hubbard had been replaced by expensive
>Saville Row suits and silk shirts. In fact, Hubbard was saving his
>pennies for something else entirely. To the general astonishment of
>his immediate colleagues, he announced in the spring of 1959 that he
>had purchased the former home of the Maharajah of Jaipur at Saint Hill
>Manor, near East Grinstead, Sussex, for a price which was declared to

>the Inland Revenue as being ?17,707.7/6 (then $42,494). This was to

Groeten,
Boudewijn.
"Faith doesn't move mountains: it levels buildings." -- David Rice

[ladayla]

In article <3bcbfe7f....@news.xs4all.nl>, bo...@xs4all.nl says...

>
>On 9 Oct 2001 17:50:54 -0700, ronthe...@yahoo.co.uk (Chris Owen) wrote:
>
>Excellent work, Chris.

I certainly agree. Thanks so much, Chris.
As an aside, I would like to point out that Don Purcell is mentioned here in an
unsavory light. The fact is that Don Purcell purchased the copyrights for DMSMH
from the bankruptcy court and GIFTED them back to LRH. For his generousity and
loyalty, he was proclaimed a Communist and an enemy by the Hub.

la