The book Scientologists stopped from being published in America for 27-years: Banned biography of L. Ron Hubbard claims leader had bizarre sex-rituals, phony war record and used racist slurs

Mail, UK/March 30, 2014

A book Scientologists have kept off the shelves of American book stores for 27-years that alleges church founder L. Ron Hubbard was a fantasist with a predilection for bizarre sexual rituals is finally to be published.

Written by British journalist Russell Miller in 1986, 'Bare-Faced Messiah' cuts a swath through the many myths the Scientologist chief built up around himself and exposes him as a charismatic charmer, who targeted celebrity devotees.

Miller alleges that Hubbard lied about his service in World War 2 and that instead of the millions of members the church claims to have - in fact only counts around 25,000 people as followers.

'Bare-Faced Messiah: The True Story of L. Ron Hubbard' was published around the globe, but two years of litigation from Scientologists held up the book in the United States.

Now finally, it has been printed by Silvertail Books, with a newly written introduction from Miller.

The biography goes right back to the start of Hubbard's life in Montana, where Hubbard said he grew up breaking wild horses on his grandfather's ranch.

However, Miller claims that Hubbard's grandfather was a 'small-time veterinarian who supplemented his income renting out horses and buggies from a livery barn.'

Hubbard also claimed to have traveled Asia intensively, where he developed his love of philosophy and mysticism after spending time with holy men who thought him to be widly precocious.

However, all Miller could find was evidence of two trips to Asia as a teenager while his father was stationed in Guam.

Hubbard noted that the Chinese could make millions if they turned the Great Wall into a roller coaster but ultimately he despaired because, 'The trouble with China is, there are too many ch**ks here.'

Hubbard's early writings with Scientology claimed that he was one of the United States' first nuclear physicists and also held a medical degree.

Miller discovered during the course of his biography that Hubbard failed the one class he took in nuclear physics and dropped out of George Washington University after his sophomore year and never got a degree.

But not all of Miller's research was to debunk the man behind the legend.

ndeed, Miller discovered a life well-lived and if he wasn't exactly attending college, Hubbard was off traveling cross-country in a bi-plane or honing his writing skills.

Hubbard also seems to have embelished the trugh about his service during the Second World War.

According to Scientology teachings, Hubbard served in 'all five theaters' of the war, was the first American casualty in the Pacific, survived being machine-gunned and blinded and had commanded American 'corvettes' in both the Atlantic and Pacific.

Miller found his wartime record and it revealed Hubbard was a naval lieutenant who in fact oversaw the re-fit of a trawler in Boston Harbor and was relieved of its command before it sailed.

While he was in the Pacific, Hubbard was handed command of an anti-submarine vessel but never left the coast off Oregon.

But the most staggering event of Hubbard's war was when he fired on Mexican territory for target practice and set off an international incident.

Miller alleges that at the wars end, Hubbard met Caltech rocket scientist Jack Parsons, who lived in Pasadena and was a well known eccentric.

Parsons was a devotee of the occult and Hubbard allegedly stole his girlfriend from him.

However, Hubbard also moved into Parson's home where Miller alleges they would engage in bizarre sex 'magick' rituals that followed the teachings of famous British occultist Aleister Crowley.

Miller alleges that with the assistance of Hubbard, Pasons 'Intended to try and create a 'moonchild' - who would be 'mightier than all the kinds of the earth', who birth, Crowley had foretold.

When the right woman or 'vessel' was identified by Parsons, he would insert his 'wand' while the lady was lying on a white sheet smeared with menstrual blood, while the 'scribe' - who was Hubbard' - took notes.

Miller documents the beginnings of what we know now as Scientology.

In 1950, Hubbard, who at this point was a well-known science-fiction author surprised the readers of Astounding Science Fiction with the announcement he had invented a new 'science of the mind' called Dianetics.

He produced a book on his theories later and created a buzz of excitement as people tried to experiment with Hubbard's claim that trauma in life begins in the womb.

In 1952, Hubbard re-branded his vision as Scientology and told his growing band of followers that his teachings could have them re-experience past lives - which could have happened billions of years ago.

Miller documents how Scientology grew and in 1953, Hubbard became concerned by government intrusion into his methods of therapy and suggested to his followers that becoming an official religion would afford them protection.

In December that year, he formed the first Church of Scientology in Camden, NJ. Another church in Los Angeles, in February 1954, soon followed.

Miller recounts how Scientology expanded to have its own naval group called the Sea Organization.

The British journalist makes the contentious claim that members of the Sea Organization dished out punishment to other followers for minor mistakes and were even thrown off the side of boats while docked in the Mediterranean.

'The Corfu locals [in Greece] would gather every morning and watch this thing. Henchman would grab people from the parade and chuck them over the edge,' Miller said to the New York Post.

Miller told the newspaper that when he interviewed former members, they were clueless as to why they followed the instructions of Scientology.

'I would say to these guys, ‘Why did you do that? Why did you put up with that?’ And they would look at me, and they would shake their heads, and they’d say, ‘You know, I just don’t know.’

Miller also addressed the number of followers Scientology in fact has.

At its peak, the church had 100,000 members, but never the millions it claims according to Miller.

And today, according to the New York Post, that number has fallen to 25,000 active members.

Miller also alleges that Hubbard actively made his church recruit celebrity members such as Tom Cruise and John Travolta so that it remained in the news.

Also investigated was Scientology's controversial Snow White Program which was engaged by the church's spy wing known as the Guardian Office.

In 1977 11 top church officials were arrested and sent to prison for trying to steal documents that allegedly contained damaging information about L. Ron Hubbard.

In the aftermath, the church claimed to have reformed, but Miller claims that the Guardian Office was replaced with the Office of Special Affairs.

Asked by the New York Post if he had been harassed by any elements of Scientology, Miller said that he had been 'followed every single day' and alleges Scientology’s chief private eye, Eugene Ingram tried to set him up as a murderer.

n June 1985, American musician Dean Reed died in Berlin after defecting to East Germany.

Miller had interviewed him for the Sunday Times hours before he committed suicide.

According to Miller, Ingram said that he was trying to prove Miller was working for MI6 and that he killed Reed for British intelligence.

'You know the typical paranoia of the church,' he told the New York Post.

'And so they put these things together. It was all nonsense, but to them it made perfect sense.'

For his part, Miller to this day is perplexed by the appeal of Scientology.

'It’s always been an utter mystery to me, a complete utter mystery to me that anybody could read Bare-Faced Messiah and then still take Scientology seriously. I mean, you know, to have a founder with a track record like his doesn’t make any sense to me, but there it is.'

The Church of Scientology refused to cooperate with the books and in his author's note, Miller wrote,

'The Church did its best to dissuade people who knew Hubbard from speaking to me and constantly threatened litigation. Scientology lawyers in New York and Los Angeles made it clear in frequent letters that they expected me to libel and defame L. Ron Hubbard.

'When I protested that in thirty years as a journalist and writer I had never been accused of libel, I was apparently investigated and a letter was written to my publishers in New York alleging that my claim was 'simply not accurate'. It was, and is.'

MailOnline approached The Church of Scientology for a comment but they have yet to respond.

However, in the past and over the past 27-years, the church has vehemently denied Miller's claims.

Stalking and copyright theft: Miller v Scientologists

Miller was warned that writing an unauthorized biography of Hubbard would prove tricky.

Miller claimed that while researching the book who was spied upon constantly and followed.

He alleges his friends received hostile visits from Scientologists and private detectives trying to find 'dirt' on him.

The Sunday Time alleged that its reporter was being 'kept under constant watch. Every time he goes abroad a two-man mission will be waiting for him at the airport when he arrives. They will monitor where he goes, who he sees, where he stays. This information will be added to his file, which is already more than 100 pages thick.'

A Church spokesman dismissed these allegations, saying, 'anyone giving you this sort of information must be crazy or on drugs.'

The Church wanted Bare-Faced Messiah's publication halted on account of the copyright issues arising from Armstrong handing over Hubbard's papers to Miller.

They succeeded in the United States, but in the UK and Canada the book was printed and sold.

Only 14,000 copies were produced and printed in the United States and most ended up in public libraries.

Bare-Faced Messiah The book Scientologists don't want you reading

The controversial biography covers the period from 1911, when Hubbard was born to his death in 1986.

It reduces his life to six distinct periods: His early life, his success as a science fiction author in the 1930s and 40s, his military career in the Second World War, his creation of Dianetics and Scientology, his journeys at sea with his followers in 1960s and 70s and his reclusive final years in the mid 1970s to 1986.

Miller obtained Hubbard's teenage diaries and his military service records and his FBI files.

Miller also spoke to Hubbard's friends and his family members.

His main source was a set of Hubbard's personal papers taken by Gerry Armstrong - a disaffected former employee of the Church if Scientology.

Armstrong had been preparing material for an official biography of Hubbard but handed them over to Miller.

The Church of Scientology refused all cooperation with Miller.

To see more documents/articles regarding this group/organization/subject click here.