Did L. Ron Hubbard believe his own rap? Here's what he admitted about Scientology in 1952 - 2016-05-16

Did L. Ron Hubbard believe his own rap? Here's what he admitted about Scientology in 1952 May 16, 2016, Tony Ortega, Underground Bunker

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In 2011, an Ohio State University professor named Hugh Urban came out with a book he titled The Church of Scientology: A History of a New Religion. We wrote about the book when it came out and interviewed the man.

Urban's book was not on our recommended reading list that we provided the other day, but not because it lacks importance. Urban's book is significant because it's an academic's attempt to put together various court documents and other historical records to establish just what Scientology is. And even though Urban, like so many other academics, questions the value of testimony from Scientology defectors, he still provides a rather stark assessment of L. Ron Hubbard's creation. Hubbard was a collector of ideas from various movements before him, and had cobbled something together that had taken on a life of its own, Urban explained.

We mention this today because recently, someone at the ESMB forum noticed that a review of Urban's book by New Yorker writer Rachel Aviv showed up in the London Review of Books in 2012, and it contained a rather startling quote from Hubbard. We remember when Aviv's review appeared, but we can understand why, four years later, that quote caused a bit of a stir over at ESMB. Here's the relevant paragraph from Aviv's review...

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{{cite news | author = Tony Ortega | title = Did L. Ron Hubbard believe his own rap? Here's what he admitted about Scientology in 1952 | url = https://tonyortega.org/2016/05/16/did-l-ron-hubbard-believe-his-own-rap-heres-what-he-admitted-about-scientology-in-1952/ | work = Underground Bunker | date = May 16, 2016 | accessdate = August 21, 2017 }}