The birth of Scientology

Last year I found the way Scientology was invented by L. Ron Hubbard when I  was looking up old science fiction stories I could download. Just be sheer accident I found a web page which copied a post in alt.religion.scientology newsgroup, dated May 2^nd, 1995.

Famous Scientologist (from the NY Post)

The following excerpt was taken from a magazine called "Saturday Evening Wings," which was printed for awhile in the 1970s. In this interview Harlan Ellison, the science fiction writer, claims to have been present the night L. Ron Hubbard decided to write "Dianetics." Note: Dianetics is  the first Bible of Scientology.

Portions of Ellison´s  interview in “Wings” follow:

Ellison: Scientology is bullshit! Man, I was there the night L. Ron Hubbard invented it, for Christ Sakes! I was sitting in a room with L. Ron Hubbard and a bunch of other science fiction writers…he was famous among science fiction writers because he was the first one to have an electric typewriter.

Battlefield Earth, Hubbard´s second most popular book

Wings: He claimed to have written "Dianetics" in a weekend, and nobody can deny it.

Dianetics, Scientology´s Bible

Ellison: That's true. He wrote "Dianetics" in one weekend…We were sitting around one night. ... who else was there? Alfred Bester, and Cyril Kornbluth, and Lester Del Rey, and Ron Hubbard, who was making a penny a word, and had been for years. And he said "This bullshit's got to stop!" He says, "I gotta get money." He says, "I want to get rich".

….And somebody said, "why don't you invent a new religion? They're always big."

We were clowning! You know, " You'll make a fortune!"

He says, "I'm going to do it." Sat down, stole a little bit from Freud, stole a little bit from Jung, a little bit from Alder, a little bit of encounter therapy, pre-Janov Primal Screaming, took all that bullshit, threw it all together, invented a few new words, because he was a science fiction writer, you know, "engrams" and "regression", all that bullshit. And then he conned John Campbell, who was crazy as a thousand battlefields. I mean, he believed any goddamned thing. He really believed blacks were inferior….and he got him to run this article on Dianetics, the new science of mental health.

Wings: Dianometry was the first article, I believe.

Ellison: Right. And science fiction fans will go for any goddamm thing. They'll believe anything, man, they will believe in the abominable snowman and the Bermuda Triangle, in Pyramid Power, in EST, in Scientology, in the Second Coming, they'll believe in any goddamm thing, they don't give a shit. They go to see "Star Wars"; they think it is for real!

The Invaders Plan, sold at

 comic shop dot com

So science fiction fans picked it up, they began proselytizing, he started making money, when he had made enough money he was able to spread out a little more….Then he wanted to get tax-exempt status, so he called it "The Church of Scientology".

Now, they've gotten so big that they own property all over the country, and it is impossible to stop it. They infiltrated the FBI, they infiltrated the tax department, ... the funny thing is, Ron Hubbard and I still occasionally communicate with each other. Every once in a while, a couple or three times a year, we exchange letters. And I write to him, you know, and I say, "Hey Ron, when is this bullshit going to cease? and he says, "It's the good work, it's the good work."

….I guess he got too busy counting his money…..

Source: http://www.islets.net/faq.html#Anchor-Was-47857