THE trendiest religion in Hollywood was founded on the teachings of a Satanist, a new essay by Camille Paglia claims. The Church of Scientology - which boasts Tom Cruise, John Travolta, Lisa Marie Presley, Hilary Swank, Juliette Lewis and Kirstie Alley among its members - was founded by science-fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard. According to an article by Paglia in Boston University's Arion journal, Hubbard got many of his ideas from infamous devil worshipper Alistair Crowley.

"Hubbard had met Crowley in the latter's Los Angeles temple in 1945," Paglia writes. "Hubbard's son reveals that Hubbard claimed to be Crowley's successor: Hubbard told him that Scientology was born on the day that Crowley died." [...]

[...] A startling and little-known example of Crowley's enduring influence is the Church of Scientology, founded in 1954 by science-fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, one of the main shapers of New Age thought. Hubbard had met Crowley at the latter's Los Angeles temple in 1945. Hubbard's son has revealed that his father claimed to be Crowley's successor: Hubbard told him that Scientology was born on the day that Crowley died. The drills used by Scientologists to cleanse and clarify the mind are evidently a reinterpretation of Crowley's singular fusion of Asian meditation with Satanic ritualism, which sharpens the all-conquering will. The guiding premise of Hubbard's mega-bestseller, Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health (1950), is that morality and spirituality can be scientifically analyzed and managed-as if guilt and remorse, in the Crowley way, are mere baggage to be jettisoned. Scientology, which attracts celebrities like John Travolta and Tom Cruise, has been pursued by the IRS for its tax-exempt status as a religion. Scientology's religiosity can be detected in its theory of reincarnation: the "process" allegedly eradicates negative thoughts and experiences predating our life in the womb. [...]

I stand before you having been accused in print by L. Ron Hubbard's followers of having an avid interest in black magic. I would like to put firmly on record that whatever interest I have is related entirely to achieving a better understanding of the creator of Dianetics and Scientology. Hubbard's followers have the right to be made aware that he had not only an avid interest, but that he was also a practitioner of black magic. Today I shall discuss these matters in depth, but I shall not repeat all of the proofs which already exist in my book A Piece of Blue Sky ⁽¹⁾. [...]

Hubbard's connection to the occultist Aleister Crowley is quite clear and noteworthy. Crowley called himself the Anti-Christ, the Beast of Revelations, and 666. Russell Miller has adequately chronicled Hubbard's connection in 1945 to John W. Parsons, who headed Crowley's Ordo Templi Orientis chapter in Los Angeles. (2) Hubbard was an active member in this group for several months, and first met his second wife there. The Church of Scientology claims that Hubbard was actually infiltrating this group in order to break it up, but the following should suffice to dismiss this claim. [...]

Hubbard's "One Word" is of course Survive,  first announced in an unpublished 1938 manuscript he titled first The One Command and then Excalibur The Dark Sword, and repeated thereafter throughout his Dianetics and Scientology material.  Scientology does not relate Hubbard's research into the mind to any occult training curriculum.

Although I trained extensively in Scientology, to Class IX Auditor, at no time was I taught about Hubbard's occult background, or the true nature of his pre-Scientology "research." [...]

In a 1984 child custody case involving a Scientologist and his non-Scientologist wife, the court awarded custody to the non-Scientologist after seeing the documentation on the horrid practices of the organization.

BBC journalist Stewart Lamont, in research for his book, Religion Inc., obtained court documents in the case revealing that Justice Latey of the High Court of London called Scientology a "cult," and wrote in the judgment, "Scientology is both immoral and socially obnoxious.... It is corrupt, sinister, and dangerous" (p. 149). [...]

[...] That night, in the temple at South Orange Grove, the two magicians made preparations to receive the message. Candles were lit, incense burned and a magical altar was laid with flowers and wine. Hubbard, the scribe, wore a white-hooded robe and carried a lamp; Parsons, the high priest, wore a black robe and carried a cup and dagger. An automatic tape recorder was set up and at Hubbard's suggestion Rachmaninoff's 'Isle of the Dead' was played as background music.

At eight o'clock, Hubbard began to intone his message from the astral world: 'These are the preparations. Green gold cloth, food for the Beast, upon a hidden platter, back of the altar. Disclose only when the doors are bolted. Transgression is death. Back of the main altar. Prepare instantly. Light the first flame at 10 pm, March 2, 1946. The year of Babalon is 4063 . . .'

After a few minutes, Parsons noticed that his scribe was pale and sweating profusely. Hubbard rested for a few moments, then continued: 'Make a box of blackness at ten o'clock. Smear the vessel which contains flame with thine own blood. Destroy at the altar a thing of value. Remain in perfect silence and heed the voice of our Lady. Speak not of this ritual or of her coming to any person . . .

'Display thyself to Our Lady; dedicate thy organs to Her, dedicate thy heart to Her, dedicate thy mind to Her, dedicate thy soul to Her, for She shall absorb thee, and thou shall become living flame before She incarnates . . .'

When Hubbard finished dictating, the scarlet woman, naked under a crimson robe, was brought into the temple. 'Oh circle of stars,' the high priest informed, 'whereof our Father is but the younger brother, marvel beyond imagination, soul of infinite space . . .' [...]

Bigamy and black magic were a part of the life of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, according to documents introduced Tuesday as exhibits in Superior Court.

And according to a former high-ranking Scientologist, Hubbard wrote a series of "Admissions" in which he acknowledged to himself his systematic manipulation of the US Navy and the Veterans Administration to increase his disability pension.

Basing his testimony on 11 years of firsthand knowledge and thousands of documents under court seal, Gerald Armstrong said the handwritten papers prove the 73-year-old founder of the worldwide Church of Scientology "has lied from his earliest youth." [...]

In 1946 Aleister Crowley (left), the sorcerer and mystic whose dabblings in black magic earned him the title The Wickedest Man in the World, found a new disciple and welcomed him to one of his occult communities in California. The extraordinary activities of this new and enthusiastic disciple are described in a vast collection of papers owned by a former admirer of Crowley which we have examined. The man in question is Lafayette Ron Hubbard (right), head of the now notorius Church of Scientology. [...]