From The Times
August 6, 2009
Secret mission to expose L. Ron Hubbard as a fake
Dominic Kennedy, Investigations Editor


L.Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology
The founder of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard, was exposed as a fraud 30
years ago by British diplomats who were investigating his qualifications.

The science-fiction writer, who invented a religion now followed by
celebrities such as Tom Cruise, awarded himself a PhD from a sham "diploma
mill"

college that he had acquired, the diplomats found.

Such was the climate of fear and paranoia surrounding Scientology that the
US believed the sect had sent bogus doctors to declare a high-ranking
legal

investigator mad and then taken his papers relating to the case.

Scientologists threatened to sue the British Government for libel after it
acted in 1968 to ban followers from entering the country to visit the
sect's world

headquarters in East Grinstead, West Sussex.

To defend itself, Britain needed to establish whether Lafayette Ron
Hubbard was a charlatan.

Department of Health files, some closed until 2019, have been released
early to The Times by the National Archives after a successful request
under the

Freedom of Information Act.

The papers include a signed statement by a former senior Scientologist who
said that he had been informed of the doctorate scam by one of Hubbard's

collaborators.

"I understand it is asserted that L. Ron Hubbard was awarded the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy by Sequoia University on February 10, 1953, in

recognition of his outstanding work in the fields of Dianetics and
Scientology and that the said degree was recorded with the Department of
Education of

the State of California," John McMaster stated.

"The position is L. Ron Hubbard [and others] acquired premises somewhere
in Los Angeles which they had registered as a university called Sequoia
and

immediately awarded each other doctorates." Dianetics is the so-called
"science" founded by Hubbard to provide spiritual healing.

Whitehall officials, keen to learn if Hubbard was truly a man of letters,
asked the British Consulate in Los Angeles to investigate him. They sent
an urgent

confidential request asking whether he had founded the university, if the
degree was self-awarded and what was the standing of the institution.
"Grateful if

you will make discreet and confidential inquiries and telegraph early
reply," said the author of a telegram from London.

The answer came from Los Angeles on April 26, 1977: "After exhaustive
enquiries we have now tracked down organisation named which was closed

down by state authorities in 1971 and all documents impounded. The facts
are that it neither has nor ever had approval and its status is not
recognised in

California . . . It is a 'will of the wisp' organisation which has no
premises and does not really exist. It has not and never had any authority
whatso-ever to

issue diplomas or degrees and the dean is sought by the authorities 'for
questioning'." The diplomat said that Californian authorities had
voluminous files

on the college.

Papers released by the National Archives include a Sequoia University
brochure offering an osteopathic medicine qualification that was
supposedly

internationally accredited. A memo from the California education
department dated 1974 states that this shows that the "diploma mill" is
"still in business

as usual, in a new field this time".

A letter from the bureau of school approvals states: "This institution has
never been approved or recognised by this office. Repeated attempts have
been

made to obtain compliance with the legal requirements. None of these
attempts have proved successful."

The remarkable allegation that Scientologists were suspected of posing as
doctors to rid themselves of an inquisitor and evidence against them
emerges

in a further British telegram.

On May 18, 1977, Louis Sherbourne, of the British Consulate-General in Los
Angeles, wrote a confidential message showing how nervous US officials

had become of Scientology. "We have now come up against the usual brick
wall of missing files and silence, each and every person and organisation

treading very warily for fear of a libel or slander action."

Mr Sherbourne wrote that Sequoia had been founded by "Rev Fr Damian Hough
alias Dr Joseph William Hough" in 1939 as a "diploma mill".

"Apart from the suspicion that Hubbard bought the university from Hough to
serve the needs of the Scientology organisation, we can establish no other

positive connection," he said.

"United States Internal Revenue Services tried hard to obtain firmer
evidence but appear to have failed. A recent attempt to resurrect the
enquiry resulted

in all the papers from 1939 to 1963 being sent to Sacramento to the office
of the State Attorney General.

"By 'an amazing coincidence' the Deputy Attorney General dealing with them
was taken ill and after seeing some 'doctors' was retired 'due to his
mental

health'. My very incensed informant in the California Department of
Education is convinced that the 'doctors' were scientologists who
hypnotised him into

mental ill-health and he feels very bitter but can do nothing about it."

A spokeswoman for the Church of Scientology said the suggestion that
Scientologists had hypnotised a deputy attorney general was "simply
reflective of

how astronomically paranoid they were".

Branching out from Berlin

Germany The Church of Scientology has opened an office in Berlin to act as
its main lobbying centre in Europe. The Agency for the Protection of the

Constitution (BfV), which monitors terrorist groups, keeps it under close
observation. The German Government blocked filming of Valkyrie in certain

locations, partly due to the involvement of its star, Tom Cruise, right,
in Scientology.

France Regards Scientology as a cult. In May a former member sued the
Church, saying that she had been pressurised into handing over large sums
of

money.

Britain The protest group Anonymous has demanded that the Church's tax
status be revoked (it is exempt from VAT).

Czech Republic The establishment of a "non-religious" primary school in
Brno was approved in May. It will teach children according to L. Ron
Hubbard's

methods.

Source: Times archives

dkennedy at (no spam) thetimes.co.uk

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