Bare-Faced Messiah (PDF) - Apologetics Index

Crowley, as in 'Men are your slaves' and 'You can be merciless whenever your will is crossed and
you have the right to be merciless.'
VA doctors would undoubtedly have found them fascinating reading, not least for the insight they
provided into Hubbard's psyche and his attitude towards the VA:
'When you tell people you are ill, it has no effect upon your health. And in Veterans Administration
examinations you'll tell them how sick you are; you'll look sick when you take it; you'll return to health
one hour after the examination and laugh at them.
'No matter what lies you may tell others, they have no physical effect on you of any kind. You never
injured your health by saying it is bad. You cannot lie to yourself.'[2]
By October, Hubbard was once again down to his last few dollars and when a friend offered him a
temporary job taking care of a boat at the yacht club on Santa Catalina Island he jumped at the
opportunity. After less than six weeks at Laguna Beach, Sara uncomplainingly packed their bags
and prepared to move on. It was a situation with which she would become all too familiar in the
months ahead.
While staying at the Catalina Island Yacht Club, Ron managed to stir himself to write an article
about fishing for the local newspaper, the Catalina Islander, but this was his only published work in
1946. On 14 November, he wrote to the Veterans Administration from the Yacht Club to complain
that his last two pension cheques had not been forwarded. 'I need this money, little as it is, very
badly,' he wrote 'and would appreciate any expedition which the matter can be given.'
A week later, he wrote again to explain why he had failed to show up for another medical
examination which the VA had requested in October. 'I was unable to report for further examination
because I was both ill and broke . . . I certainly hope you can scare me up something by way of a
pension for I am not eating very well these days and this job I have will vanish shortly.'[3]
Vanish it did and by the beginning of December Ron and Sara were in New York, staying at the
Hotel Belvedere, West 48th Street. On 8 December he wrote on hotel notepaper to acknowledge
receiving orders to report for another examination, explaining his expensive address by saying that
a friend had financed his trip back East in return for his advice on an expedition then being planned.
While he was in New York, Ron naturally looked up his old science fiction friends and one of them
introduced him to Sam Merwin, who was then editing the 'Thrilling' group of magazines. 'I found him
a very amusing guy,' Merwin recalled, 'and bought several stories from him. He was really quite a
character. I always knew he was exceedingly anxious to hit big money - he used to say he thought
the best way to do it would be to start a cult.'[4]
Ron also called on his old friend and mentor, John W. Campbell, in his familiar office in the Street
and Smith building. Campbell was delighted to welcome Ron back from the war; he had written to
him a year earlier[5] pleading for contributions ('Astounding is in a mell of a hess. I need - and but
bad - stories. Any length.') and now he urged Ron to get back to work. He was constantly getting
letters from readers, he said, asking when the magazine was going to publish more stories by L.
Ron Hubbard. Before he left the building, Ron accepted an assignment to write a five thousandword
feature about the consequences of man landing on the moon for Air Trails and Science
Frontiers, a new non-fiction magazine which Campbell had recently launched.
Despite his terrible eye-strain and rheumatism and ulcers and everything else, Hubbard managed