|
have lived no cloistered life and hold in contempt the wise man who has not lived and the scholar who will not share.
“There have been many wiser men than I, but few have traveled as much road.
“I have seen life from the top down and the bottom up. I know how it looks both ways. And I know there is wisdom and that there is hope.”
So wrote humanitarian, educator, administrator, artist and philosopher L. Ron Hubbard. The words aptly describe the approach to life of this true Renaissance man, and provide a fitting opening to a new publication about him.
The 130-page L. Ron Hubbard: A Profile was released recently and has already become a treasured volume for Scientologists and non-Scientologists alike.
Its pages chronicle the life and accomplishments of a remarkable man—the Founder of the Scientology religion, and the impact of his life’s work on millions of people the world over.
It conveys the scope of the life of the man who provided solutions to the most devastating problems of our civilization and discovered the spiritual path to the deepest and most cherished dreams of people everywhere. And between its pages, one discovers the spirit of the man whom millions call their best friend.
Available in 14 languages, including German, Spanish, English, Danish, Norwegian, Italian, French, Portuguese and Russian, the booklet is the result of thousands of hours of research and documentation. It includes a year-by-year chronicle of highlights of Mr. Hubbard’s life and fascinating stories behind many of his major discoveries in the fields of philosophy, religion, art, education, administration, crime and drug rehabilitation.
Rare photographs of the Far East that Mr. Hubbard shot in the 1920s and a sampling of the thousands of proclamations and accolades he received are included.
Profile provides the best description yet of the man and his works, including professional accomplishments in many fields—writer, barnstorming pilot, explorer, musician, Marine Corps drill sergeant, Naval intelligence officer, photographer, press reporter, special officer of the Los Angeles Police Department, horticulturist, master mariner, and more. It profiles a man who was well beyond superficial classification.
This new publication presents the true story of this remarkable man and reveals why so many people—not only Scientologists—recognize and acknowledge his genius and accomplishments.
Following is an excerpt from the Introduction to L. Ron Hubbard: A Profile.
 here are only two tests of a life well lived L. Ron Hubbard once remarked: Did one do as one intended? And were people glad one lived? In testament to the first stands the full body of his life’s work, including the more than 5,000 writings and 3,000 tape- recorded lectures of Dianetics and Scientology. In evidence of the second are the tens of millions of individuals whose lives have been demonstrably bettered because he lived. They are the more than 3 million children now reading because of L. Ron Hubbard’s educational discoveries; they are the millions of men and women freed from substance abuse through L. Ron Hubbard’s breakthroughs in drug rehabilitation; they are the more than 40 million who have been touched by his non-religious moral code; and they are the many millions more who hold his work to be the spiritual cornerstone of their lives.
Although best known for Dianetics and Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard cannot be so simply categorized. If nothing else, his life was too varied, his influence too broad. There are Bantu tribesmen in southern Africa, for example, who know nothing of Dianetics and Scientology, but they know L. Ron Hubbard the educator. Likewise, there are factory workers in Albania who know him only for his administrative discoveries; children in China who know him only as the author of their moral code, and readers in a dozen languages who know him only for his novels. So, no, L. Ron Hubbard is not an easy man to categorize and certainly does not fit popular misconceptions of “religious founder” as an aloof and contemplative figure. Yet the more one comes to know this man and his achievements, the more one comes to realize he was precisely the sort of person to have brought us Scientology – the only major religion to have been founded in the 20th century.
What Scientology offers is likewise what one would expect of a man such as L. Ron Hubbard. For not only does it provide a fully unique approach to our most fundamental questions – Who are we? From where did we come and what is our destiny? – but it further provides an equally unique technology for greater spiritual awareness. So how would we expect to characterize the founder of such a religion? Clearly, he would have to be larger than life, attracted to people, liked by people, dynamic, charismatic and immensely capable in a dozen fields – all exactly L. Ron Hubbard.
The fact is, if Mr. Hubbard had stopped after only one of his many accomplishments he would still be celebrated today. For example, with 38 million works of fiction in circulation, including such monumental bestsellers as Battlefield Earth, Fear and the Mission Earth series, Mr. Hubbard is unquestionably one of the most acclaimed and widely read authors of all time. His novels have earned some of the world’s most prestigious literary awards, and he has very genuinely been described as “one of the most prolific and influential writers of the twentieth century.”
His earlier accomplishments are similarly impressive. As a barnstorming aviator through the 1930s he was known as “Flash” and broke local records for sustained glider flight. As a leader of expeditions, he is credited with conducting the first complete Puerto Rican mineralogical survey under United States protectorship and his navigational annotations still influence the maritime guides for British Columbia. His experimentation with early radio directional finding further became the basis for the Long Range Navigational system (LORAN). And, as a lifelong photographer, his works have been displayed in galleries on two continents, with the definitive exhibition of his photographs, still drawing tens of thousands every year.
Among other avenues of research, Mr. Hubbard developed and codified an administrative technology that is currently utilized by more than four thousand organizations worldwide, including multinational corporations, charitable bodies, political parties, schools, youth clubs and hundreds of small businesses. Likewise Mr. Hubbard’s internationally acclaimed educational methods are utilized by thousands of academic institutions, while his equally acclaimed drug rehabilitation program has proven five times more effective than other such programs.
Yet, however impressive these figures, no measure of L. Ron Hubbard is complete without some appreciation of what became his life’s work: Dianetics and Scientology. The world’s most effective force for positive change, the Church of Scientology represents spiritual freedom for millions of people the world over. They come from every walk of life, every culture and every strata of society. Moreover, when one is speaking of L. Ron Hubbard’s discoveries relating to the human mind and spirit, one is ultimately speaking of the philosophic foundation of all he accomplished: better education, crime-free cities, drug-free campuses, stable and ethical organizations and cultural revitalization through the arts—all this and more is made possible because of the breakthroughs contained in Dianetics and Scientology.
This succinct profile of the man and his achievements is provided in the spirit of what he himself declared: “If things were a little better known and understood, we would all lead happier lives.”
For information on how to obtain a copy of L. Ron Hubbard: A Profile to read more about this exceptional man, contact in Germany:
Scientology Kirche Hamburg
In the United States:
Church of Scientology International
|
|
