Another Blow Against Censorship

http://jonathanturley.org/2014/04/07/scientology-3/

I have the book Bare Faced Messiah, a remarkably even-handed biography of Hubbard; which, I suspect, is the primary objection by the Church of Scientology. Not that the book makes outrageous claims and scandalously defames Hubbard, but that it is a honest, accurate account of his life and the creation of Scientology.

My own opinion is that Hubbard was a second-rate pulp author who wrote two first rate stories (Fear and Typewriter in the Sky) and a few entertaining ones. Hubbard found out that religion paid a lot better than writing, and switched from writer to prophet.

The Church that he created is something else again.

I recall hearing that Hubbard created the religion on a bet with another SF writer. I'm curious if that rumor is mentioned in the book.

It's mentioned and discounted; the origins (as far as can be determined) stemmed from discussions between Hubbard and John Campbell. The late editor of Astounding was a highly intelligent gadfly, who kept coming up with controversial ideas (such as the Dean Drive) to spur discussions and stories. Any such 'bet' would have been more of a challenge.

I won a copy of one of Hubbard's pulp stories through LTER--still not sure how that happened--and was struck by the hagiographic, hyperbolic tone the afterword and foreword took. It wasn't anything overt, but I couldn't escape the feeling that the whole project existed just to steer people to Scientology.

"God is 'bread'"!...

Well, Bare-faced Messiah WAS available on line for free at:

http://www.xenu.net/archive/books/bfm/bfmconte.htm

But I see it is no more but just referred you to a place you can buy it.

I stumbled across this site a few years back and read it. It is THE most entertaining and mind-blowing biography I have ever read, which is saying a lot since I have read the biographies or autobiographies of:

Roald Dahl
Ayn Rand
Christina Onassis
Heinrich Harrer
Evelyn Waugh
Robert Crumb
Louis Edmonds
Heinrich Zimmer
Camryn Manheim
Lenny Bruce
Chuck Barris
Monte Python
Carl Djerassi
Bill Maher
Jack Paar
Gene Simmons
David Lee Roth
Adriana Trigiani
Malcolm X
Drew Carey
W. Somerset Maugham
Isaac Asimov
Joseph Campbell
Alan Watts
Richard Francis Burton
James Lees-Milne
Katherine Mansfield
O. Henry
Albert Ellis
Albert P. Terhune
P.G. Wodehouse

Miller does comment that Hubbard's real life was vastly more entertaining and engrossing than the fictional biography promoted by the Church of Scientology.

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I really think it is because Hubbard was obviously a full-blown narcissist AND pretty much a psychotic - not just a sociopath.

That is a particularly evil combination.