25 years ago: Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard reportedly dies

On January 24, 1986 L. Ron Hubbard, a prolific writer of science fiction whose book Dianetics (1950) served as the foundational text for a criminal organization masquerading as a religious movement called the Church of Scientology, reportedly died at the age of 74 at his ranch in California. A number of books under his name were published in subsequent years, so it seems that Mr. Hubbard was not one to let such a trifle as his reported death interrupt his lucrative career. For useful information on this evil organization, check the Scientology file at the Ross Institute. See my previous post for an article on the purported decline of Scientology under the leadership of Mr. Hubbard’s successor.

The spiritual climate of Pasadena, California in the 1930s and ‘40s is a worthy subject for investigation, and George Pendle’s biography Strange Angel: The Otherworldly Life of Rocket Scientist John Whiteside Parsons (2005) describes much of the occultism going on there at that time. Mr. Parsons was a brilliant scientist working at what later became the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology. He was also heavily into the occult, and was one of the most fervent American admirers of "the wickedest man in the world," English occultist Aleister Crowley. Mr. Hubbard lived in the same house as Mr. Parsons for a time, and Mr. Pendle’s book goes into detail about their relationship.

One new religious movement based in Pasadena in those days that isn’t mentioned in Mr. Pendle’s book is the Radio Church of God--eventually to be known as the Worldwide Church of God--led by Herbert W. Armstrong. The death of Mr. Armstrong took place just eight days before the reported death of Mr. Hubbard; oddly, Mr. Armstrong, on his radio broadcasts of The World Tomorrow, occasionally mentioned the long-forgotten American philosopher Elbert Hubbard, who perished in the sinking of the Lusitania in 1915. There’s no connection between the Hubbards that I know of, but one can’t help but notice the similarity between the names Elbert and L. Ron. Is this coincidence--or decadence?