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Two anecdotes:

Writer Harlan Ellison once related an amusing story of how Scientology got started.  Hubbard of course got his start as a pulp fiction writer in the 1940's, writing science fiction, detective stories, westerns, anything that'd give him a paycheck.  In the late 1950's Hubbard was at a writers convention, having a drink with fellow SF writer Jack Williamson.  The conversation turned to religion, and the two inebriated writers said why couldn't science fiction writers create their own religion?  They made a bet with each other to do just that.  Williamson probably forgot about the bet after the hangover left.  Not so Mr. Hubbard...

Anecdote #2:  L. Ron Hubbard's son,  Ron Jr. wrote a particularly angry book about Scientology and his father, entitled L. Ron Hubbard:  Messiah or Madman?, published in 1987 after many delays and attempts to stop it by the Church.  Jr. describes being the same sort of intimidation techniques being used on him as Mr. Hawkins.  A link to it can be found here:  www.clambake.org/archive/books/mom/Messiah_or_Madman.txt

posted 2 years, 3 months ago
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