Bare-Faced Messiah (PDF) - Apologetics Index

Between his second and third marriages, Ron dallied with his public relations assistant, luscious Barbara Kaye.
She would soon conclude that he was paranoid.
Barbara Kaye knew a lot about Ron's problems because she was having an affair with him. She
was just twenty years old, an exceptionally pretty blonde and a psychology major. 'I wanted to get
into public relations and an employment agency sent me along to the Foundation. They were
looking for someone to answer the scurrilous attacks that the Press was making on Dianetics. Ron
interviewed me for the job and hired me straight away.
'My first impression was of a husky, red-haired man with a full, flabby face - not by any means what
one would call handsome. If I'd seen him on the street I wouldn't have given him a second look, but
I soon learned he was a very creative, intelligent and articulate individual. He had a marvellous
personality and was very dynamic. There was a lot going on in the office at that time and
sometimes when I worked late he took me home. One night he kissed me and, well, one thing led
to another. That's how it all started. I knew he was married, but I was very young at the time and not
as concerned with other men's wives as perhaps I should have been.'
It was an affair squeezed into a hectic timetable. Hubbard was lecturing at the Foundation every
day, seven days a week. A. E. van Vogt, who had temporarily abandoned science-fiction writing, got
up at 5.30 each morning to drive down to the Casa to open the office. Hubbard arrived an hour later
and chaired a daily meeting of the staff instructors, most of whom had received their initial training
in Elizabeth, New Jersey. At eight o'clock the first students arrived. Hubbard lectured from eight to
nine and demonstrated from nine to ten.
'We had an auditorium that could seat 500 people,' said van Vogt, 'but the lectures were always
crowded. You see there was nothing available for ordinary people at that time in the way of therapy.
Analysts were a lost cause because they were already charging too much and we offered a
complete course for $500. What sticks in my mind was how fluently Ron talked off the top of his
head. Every morning it was something different. It amazed me. Where had it all come from? That
was the question in my mind. The only thoughts I ever got from Ron were that he had observed