With all the chatter about L Ron Hubbard’s alleged shortcomings, it got me to thinking about what the effect of the unprecedented ad hominen attacks against the man were. Hubbard was demonized by the Cold War establishment perhaps more than any other civilian figure. One cummulative effect of it all was to to one degree or another de-humanize him in the public eye. We see remnants of those effects to this day. Tony Ortega has even come to the conclusion that my mission – and that of many other Independents – is made hopeless by this historical landscape. That landscape is not easy to contextualize given its long-lived nature and Miscavige’s daily efforts to make the myths into reality. Providing context to the entire picture is a longer term project that I never lose site of, but unfortunately I have not found the time to devote to it that it deserves.
So, in the interim I play the game of trying to provide morsels of food for thought from time to time that might ever so slightly shift a viewpoint or two.
Today, I address a propaganda line that developed some legs during the take-down-Hubbard Cold War. That is, “Hubbard’s writings rarely mention the word ‘love.'”
For those who have studied and applied much Scientology, certainly for me personally, that one cut to the quick. It was not readily put to rest by counting up the use of the word “love” in Hubbard’s works. Because, fact of the matter is, you won’t find the word “love” aplenty in Hubbard’s books and lectures. Does that fact mean the subject of Scientology has nothing to do with the concept of “love”?
Again to those who understand the subject through study and work with it, the answer is “of course it does, in fact it is the heart and soul of the subject.”
The purpose of the subject is to free the spirit through achievement of ever-increasing Understanding. Understanding is composed of Affinity, Reality and Communication (ARC). ARC are the component parts of Theta (the spirit, the soul; a term coined by Hubbard so as not to confuse it with 3000 years of misconceptions accumulated in the subject of spirituality). Theta is the highest concept of love. Theta is life force, elan vital, the all-healing good that the opposite of love (hate, lies, evil) disappears in the presence of.
Nearly every book written (there were dozens) and every lecture spoken (there were thousands) by Hubbard were done in furtherance of forwarding the laws of Affinity, Reality and Communication (increasing them) so as to free Theta.
I once tried to explain to Lawrence Wright (Pulitzer prize winning author of the February New Yorker article) that for every fault he could dig up about Hubbard, I could trace it back to a virtue. Yes, Hubbard could be a harsh task master. Yes, he could roll up his sleaves and fight fire with a firestorm. Yes, his propensity to do so left indelible faults in the organizations he created ( e.g. the Guardian’s Office, and yes even Office of Special Affairs, etc). But, having studied the subject thoroughly and practiced it inside and outside the organization, studied the man thoroughly (warts and all), and even myself having acted viciously over many years in the name of defending Scientology, I came to an understanding while being outside of the beast for three years. That is, notwithstanding the fact that a died in the wool sociopath subsequently used Hubbard’s propensity to fight back hard as a justification for systematically ruining lives, the Old Man cared (many say to a fault) about assuring people’s ability to benefit from his discoveries. His discoveries about the laws of Affinity, Reality and Communication, the component parts of Theta (the highest possible concept of love). That Hubbard’s solutions to antagonism during the height of the Cold War are reprehensibly dramatized by a madman and an anachronistic organization in the age of Communication does not cancel that truth.
I’ll leave you with that thought and a song that I posted several weeks ago. I know it is lengthy and only a few people (Laura, Rachel and Christie, I think) acknowledged having made it all the way through it. But, this song captures for me the spirit of Scientology. When all hope is lost for Chester, something happens. The lyrics don’t explicitly say what it is. But the music and context of the lyrics communicates what happens. Chester is saved by love (theta), and somehow Chester realizes his (theta’s) seniority over the mechanics of matter, energy, space and time…and I’ll be damned.
When push comes to shove, when bullshit’s had its say, when the critics and zealots are done beating the hell out of one another, whether you wind up believing Hubbard was a sinner, a saint, a vengeful dirty fighter, or whatever, I’ll continue to think he would have been right in there pitching with Chester, doing his damnedest to coax him on up to cause over the elements that were trying to take him out of the game.
Moving On Up a Little Higher 