Bare-Faced Messiah (PDF) - Apologetics Index

The Briefing Course would eventually comprise more than three hundred taped lectures by L. Ron
Hubbard, its longevity sustained by 'technical breakthroughs' that followed closely one upon the
other, each new technique replacing the last and requiring dedicated Scientologists to trek back to
Saint Hill time and time again in order to keep up to date.
When Hubbard was not lecturing he was writing directives covering everything from how to save the
world to how to clean his office. No detail was too insignificant to merit his attention: one HCO
Policy Letter covering two pages was posted prominently in the garage at Saint Hill explaining how
cars should be washed and another was addressed to the Household Section headed 'Flowers,
Care Of'. He also dashed off a new potted biography of himself adding further gloss to his already
well-burnished career. It was included in a handout headed 'What Is Scientology?':
'For hundreds of years physical scientists have been seeking to apply the exact knowledge they
had gained of the physical universe to Man and his problems. Newton, Sir James Jeans, Einstein,
have all sought to find the exact laws of human behaviour in order to help Mankind.
'Developed by L. Ron Hubbard, C.E., Ph.D., a nuclear physicist, Scientology has demonstrably
achieved this long-sought goal. Doctor Hubbard, educated in advanced physics and higher
mathematics and also a student of Sigmund Freud and others, began his present researches thirty
years ago at George Washington University. The dramatic result has been Scientology . . .'
The laudable aim of 'helping mankind' sat rather uncomfortably with the requirement for security
checks, which were stepped up during 1961. An even more intrusive questionnaire was introduced
which appeared to have been designed with perverts and criminals rather than potential troublemakers
in mind. Many of the questions reflected Hubbard's morbid preoccupation with sexual
deviation ('Have you ever had intercourse with a member of your family' and 'Have you ever had
anything to do with a baby farm?') and a wide range of crimes were also probed ('Have you ever
murdered anyone?' and 'Have you ever done any illicit diamond buying?'). In addition Hubbard
specifically wanted to know if the individual being checked had ever 'had any unkind thoughts' about
himself or Mary Sue. Every check sheet was forwarded to Saint Hill on Hubbard's orders. When
combined with the individual folders in which details of auditing sessions were recorded, they
made up a comprehensive dossier in which the innermost thoughts of every member of the Church
of Scientology were filed.
Three days after Christmas 1961, Hubbard flew to Washington DC to attend a congress and
publicize the benefits to be obtained by enrolling in the Saint Hill Briefing Course. He asked Reg
Sharpe to accompany him on the trip and Sharpe was very soon made aware of his leader's little
foibles. When their aeroplane stopped for re-fuelling at Boston, Hubbard scurried across the
passenger terminal and stood with his back pressed against a wall for the duration of the stop,
explaining to his bemused companion that there were people 'out to get him'.
In Washington, Sharpe was astonished by the adulation with which Hubbard was received. He
lectured for about four hours on each day of the congress to a spellbound audience and had
refined his speaking technique to a fine art, shamelessly borrowing the tricks of show business
and political conventions. He liked to appear at the back of the hall to the accompaniment of a drum
roll and stride through the audience, waving his arms in greeting and shaking hands on the way to
the rostrum. His timing, the essence of a good speaker, was faultless and he could hold an entire
auditorium in thrall for hours. Like a cabaret artiste doing two spots a night, he got into the habit of
changing his clothes during a break, appearing for the second half of his lecture in a silk suit of a
different colour, or sometimes a gold lamé jacket. It held the interest of the audience, he explained,