Bare-Faced Messiah (PDF) - Apologetics Index

She was disappointed to register no improvement in her condition. 'It seemed quite useless, it
wasn't helping at all. Two or three days afterwards I was feeling very disorganized, ragged and out
of sorts. Friends kept telling me to ring Ron, but I didn't want to bother him. Eventually someone
rang him and he said, "Put her on the line." He gave me a long session over the telephone lasting
at least two hours, possibly three.
'At that time he was very interested in energy. He said, "I want you to mock up a small amount of
energy, like a little ball and tell me when you have done it." Then he said, "Now blow it up, make it
explode." This was going on subjectively in my imagination; I had no difficulty doing it. Then he said,
"Now you have exploded it, gather it all together again and reduce it all down to the small ball of
energy, make it solid again." I did that and he said, "Now explode it again." That is all the session
consisted of.
'After I had been doing this for a while, possibly half an hour, my physical body began to react in an
extraordinary way. It began of its own accord to jerk about unintentionally, first quite gently. I told him
what was happening and he told me not to worry but continue doing what he told me. The jerking
became stronger, almost out of my control. I felt quite frightened, but he remained very calm and
gentle. Finally it seemed my body was being flung out of the chair and I had to hold the chair and
the telephone with might and main. I could not possibly have made my body do what it was doing, I
would have had to have been an acrobat or trained contortionist. I thought my heart was going to
burst. My friends sitting in the room watching me were aghast, terrified.
'The explosions, which had become more and more violent, became less violent by degrees and in
the end instead of violent explosions of vast energy it was more like a stone thrown into pond
sending out ripples. The ripples became very pleasant and as they did so my body calmed down
and became quite tranquil, as if I was lying in the sun on a hot day. All around me were beautiful
colours like the Aurora Borealis, colours out of this world, very soothing and harmonious and
completely restorative. This went on until I felt quite all right and then he said it was the end of the
session.'
Hubbard was clearly pleased by the results he had obtained with Carmen D'Alessio and at his next
public lecture, in a small hall near Holland Park, he invited her to tell the audience about her
experience. Unfortunately, Miss D'Alessio began her account by describing how her heart had
nearly stopped and Hubbard hastily interrupted. 'He didn't want me to say any more,' she recalled.
'He never allowed anyone to say anything negative about him.[6]
In October, a British edition of Scientology: 8-8008 was published, with a note about the author
from an unnamed editor: 'Some think of his work as the only significant enlargement of the mind
since Freud's papers in the late 19th century; others think of it as the Western World's first workable
organization of Eastern philosophy. It has been called by two of the leading writers in America: "The
most significant advance of mankind in the 20th century" . . . Probably no philosopher of modern
times has had the popularity and appeal of Hubbard or such startling successes within his own
lifetime.'
At the end of November, Hubbard returned to the United States, with Mary Sue and the baby, to
deliver a series of lectures in Philadelphia, where the Scientology franchise was being run by
Helen O'Brien and her husband, who paid ten per cent of their gross earnings to Hubbard for the
privilege. The O'Briens agreed to pay Hubbard a $1000 fee for the lectures; in addition they
arranged a car for his use and rented an ultra-modern terraced apartment at 2601 Parkway, high
above River Drive. Hubbard was pleased with it, declared it to be a 'science-fiction writer's dream'
and at the same time tried to manoeuvre Helen O'Brien into signing the rental agreement. She