Bare-Faced Messiah (PDF) - Apologetics Index

and also solved his perspiration problems.
Hubbard's vigorous promotion of Saint Hill as the Mecca of Scientology resulted in hundreds of
young Americans making their way to East Grinstead, somewhat to the surprise of the
townspeople, who still had very little idea of what was going on. 'Dr Hubbard' had recently adopted
a rather lower profile locally: he resigned from his position as the town's Road Safety Organizer,
pleading pressure of business, was very rarely seen outside the grounds of Saint Hill Manor and
no longer courted publicity from the local newspapers. By and large, the influx of American visitors
to the town was welcomed: they were quiet, polite and spent freely. If they were less than
forthcoming about what they were doing in the area, that was all right with the locals, who
instinctively respected the rights of folk who wanted to 'keep themselves to themselves'.
Members of East Grinstead Urban Council expressed some faint concern inasmuch as Saint Hill
Manor was restricted, by planning regulations, to private residential use, but such was Dr
Hubbard's reputation that they resolved to do no more than urge him, in confidence, to apply for
planning permission regularizing the use of the manor for office and research purposes. He
responded by slapping in a planning application to build a seventy-five-room administration centre
in the grounds of the manor and circularizing a 'Report to the Community' appealing for support.
In the report, Hubbard revealed to the people of East Grinstead that as a result of his experiments
on plants and 'living energies' he was able to reduce the physiological age of an individual by as
much as twenty years and increase the average life span by as much as twenty-five per cent. 'We
have not announced anything of this to the press,' he confided, 'as we are already overworked in
centres of the world for discoveries such as these. But we wanted you as a friend to be aware of
this, and consider you have the right to know what is happening here.'
In August, Hubbard turned his attention to the broader arena of international affairs by offering to
help President Kennedy narrow the gap in the space race. The young president had committed the
United States to landing a man on the moon before the decade was out and, as a loyal American,
Hubbard obviously wanted to do what he could to help. On 13 August 1962, he wrote a long letter to
the White House to advise Kennedy that Scientology techniques were peculiarly applicable to
space flight and that the perception of an astronaut could be increased far beyond human range
and stamina to levels hitherto unattained in human beings.
To establish his bona fides, Hubbard claimed to have coached the 'British Olympic team',
producing unheard-of results. He added that he had been fending off approaches from the
Russians for years, ever since he was offered Pavlov's laboratories in 1938. The first manuscript of
his work had been stolen in Miami in 1942, the second in Los Angeles in 1950 and 'only last week'
Communist interests had stolen forty hours of tape containing the latest research work from the
Scientology headquarters in South Africa.
Although he was convinced that there was a growing library on Scientology in Russia, fortunately
the Russians did not yet have the advanced knowledge that would be applicable to the space
programme. All the US Government need do, he said, was turn over anyone needing conditioning
for space flight and Scientology would do the rest. Each man would need processing for about 250
hours and the cost would only be $25 an hour, with the possibility of a discount for large numbers.
'Man will not successfully get into space without us . . .' he warned. 'We do not wish the United
States to lose either the space race or the next war. The deciding factor in that race or that war may
very well be lying in your hands at this moment, and may depend on what is done with this letter . . .
Courteously, L. Ron Hubbard.'