Los Angeles, California. 1950.UCLA Digital Library
Los Angeles, California. 1950.UCLA Digital Library
Los Angeles, California. 1950.UCLA Digital Library
Hubbard agreed to give her complete custody over their child as long as she would sign a document calling Dianetics the world's most important project.
Los Angeles, California. 1951.USC Libraries
1959.Chris Ware/Keystone Features/Getty Images
Shortly after divorcing Sara Northrup, Hubbard turned his Dianetics idea into a full church. In a letter to his secretary, Helen O'Brien, Hubbard suggested that, if they took the "religion angle," they could make "real money".
Los Angeles, California. Date unspecified.Los Angeles Public Library
Throughout his entire career as a pulp fiction writer, Hubbard only earned $10,000. After forming his own religion, he became a millionaire.
Sussex, England. 1959.Terence Spencer/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Sussex, England. 1959.Chris Ware/Keystone Features/Getty Images
Sussex, England. 1959.Chris Ware/Keystone Features/Getty Images
Sussex, England. 1959.Chris Ware/Keystone Features/Getty Images
Sussex, England. 1959.Scott Lauder/Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
The original caption to the photo refers to Hubbard as the "white millionaire."
Salisbury, Rhodesia. 1966.Bettmann/Getty Images
Salisbury, Rhodesia. 1966.Bettmann/Getty Images
Authorities raided the facility when they found evidence that the Church of Scientology had stolen government documents during their Operation Snow White efforts to purge any damaging records about Scientology and Hubbard from government offices in several countries.
Toronto, Canada. 1983.Dick Darrell/Toronto Star via Getty Images
The fallout of Operation Snow White led to raids of Scientology offices around the world, as evidence came out that they had been tampering with government documents.
Toronto, Canada. 1983.Tony Bock/Toronto Star via Getty Images
Toronto, Canada. 1983.Tony Bock/Toronto Star via Getty Images)
Toronto, Canada. 1983.Tony Bock/Toronto Star via Getty Images)
After Operation Snow White, Scientologists, including Mary Sue Hubbard, were charged with breaking into government buildings and stealing government documents.
Denver, Colorado. 1978The Denver Post via Getty Images
The court ruled that the Church of Scientology would have to pay out $30 million to former member Larry Wollersheim, who alleged that they wrecked him mentally and financially.
Los Angeles, California. 1986.Bettmann/Getty Images
Los Angeles, California. 1986.Bettmann/Getty Images
Los Angeles, California. 1986.Los Angeles Public Library
Los Angeles, California. 1986.Los Angeles Public Library
Los Angeles, California. 1983.Los Angeles Public Library
Toronto, Canada. 1992.Ron Bull/Toronto Star via Getty Images
In his later years, Hubbard became more reclusive and less involved in Scientology. Instead, he holed himself up and worked on his first passion: writing science fiction.
New York City, New York. 1982.Michael Montfort/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
His son, Ron Dewolf, had claimed that Hubbard was dead.
Los Angeles, California. 1983.Bettmann/Getty Images
New York City, New York. 1982.Michael Montfort/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Toronto, Canada. 1987.Richard Lautens/Toronto Star via Getty Images
In the pulp-printed pages of a May 1950 issue of Astounding Science Fiction, L. Ron Hubbard published, for the first time, a work that would one day grow into an entire religion: Dianetics. There, creased between space adventures and tales of alien invasion, were the pages that gave birth to Scientology.
Up until then, Hubbard had made his living as a pulp fiction writer and, in all his years of work, had earned only about $10,000. After a journey of personal exploration, he came upon the idea of Dianetics – a way he would "clear" people from all distress.
It wasn't his first foray into religion. A few years before, L. Ron Hubbard had dabbled in the occult with his friend Jack Parsons. Together, the two had developed the "Babalon Working" ritual, a magical ceremony intended to bring forth an incarnation of the occult sex goddess Babalon.
Their experiments ended after Hubbard convinced Parsons to put up the funds for a fleet of yachts – and then bailed out of the country with the boats, the money, and Parsons' girlfriend, Sara Northrup.
Northrup and Hubbard would soon get married, but their relationship would start to dissolve with the rise of Dianetics. As his wealth and fame started to grow, Hubbard started to have affairs and, in response, Northrup had affairs of her own.
As revenge, Hubbard had tried to report his wife as a communist and to get a doctor to declare her mentally insane. In the end, Hubbard granted her a divorce and full custody of the kids – under the condition that she would sign a paper saying that he was a "fine and brilliant man."
With the divorce out of the way, Hubbard was free to transform Dianetics into a full religion. He wrote to his secretary, Helen O'Brien, that, if they registered a church, they could charge customers $500 for 24-hour auditing sessions. "That is real money," Hubbard wrote. "Charge enough and we'd be swamped."
O'Brien opted out, but Hubbard's new wife, Mary Sue, was willing to help him start his religion. Hubbard became a millionaire. He bought his own mansion and a fleet of yachts, and started one of the most controversial religions of all time.
Scientology was born.
"[Robert Heinlein] thinks Ron went to pieces morally as a result of the war," one of Hubbard's friends, L. Sprague de Camp, wrote to Isaac Asimov, trying to understand how the man who was once their friend could have gotten wrapped up in all of this.
"I think that's fertilizer," de Camp decided. "He was always that way."
Next, read about the strangest things that Scientologists believe. Then, read the recent report of the Scientologist's facilities that were closed after police found people held prisoner inside.
