L. Ron Hubbard founded Dianetics and, later, the Church of Scientology.1 Before that, in the mid-1940s, he was among the most active members of the Los Angeles branch of the Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO), alongside rocket engineer Jack Parsons.2 Hubbard came to Parsons’ mansion in California Pasadena in 1945,3 and by 1946 the two men had carried out a variety of magical workings, mostly sexual rituals intended to achieve short-term goals.4
These workings culminated in the so-called Babalon Working, in which Hubbard was Parsons’ partner while himself serving in naval intelligence during World War II.5 As part of the ritual, the pair re-enacted a series of seances originally performed in the sixteenth century by John Dee, Royal Astrologer to Queen Elizabeth I.6 They meditated in the California desert for eleven days in an attempt to conjure an elemental spirit.7 According to Dark Mission, the rituals also drew on Dee’s Enochian calls, or angelic language, and specifically invoked the Egyptian god Osiris.8 Dark Mission further states that the pair’s magical practice, carried out in Southern California as the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) was being founded nearby, had roots in ancient Egyptian tradition and invoked Osiris, Horus, and the rest of the Egyptian pantheon.9 The same source states that Aleister Crowley became alarmed on learning that Hubbard and Parsons were attempting to produce a Moonchild,10 considering neither man experienced enough in the methods and consequences of his Thelemic sex magick to attempt it safely.11
In 1946 Hubbard left for New York with Parsons’ money and his wife, Sara Northrup, then travelled on to Florida with the boat, the woman, and the remainder of Parsons’ cash.12 Northrup was the sister of Parsons’ wife Helen Parsons and had been Parsons’ lover before her involvement with Hubbard; the boat was a sailing vessel named the Harpoon.13 Dark Mission also states that a Bill of Sale produced by the Church of Scientology shows Parsons had in fact sold the Harpoon to Hubbard.14 The same source states that Parsons summoned the Martian god Bartzabel in an attempt to conjure a storm against the fleeing pair.15 Hubbard and Northrup did meet a fierce storm at sea and were forced back to Miami, where Parsons had them arrested.16 Hubbard subsequently married Northrup and went on to found the Church of Scientology.17
Dark Mission also sets out a different account of this period, according to which the Church of Scientology states that Hubbard was in fact sent by the United States Navy (USN) to infiltrate and break up a black magic cult operating in Los Angeles.18 According to Mike Bara, church members sought to correct what they viewed as mischaracterisations of Hubbard and Parsons in Dark Mission’s original treatment,19 arguing that Hubbard had been sent to infiltrate and disrupt Parsons’ activities at 1003 Orange Grove Avenue rather than being a willing participant in Parsons’ pursuits within the OTO.20 Bara wrote that documents supplied by the church inclined him toward the interpretation that Hubbard had been sent to infiltrate the Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.) rather than being a willing participant,21 and that Hubbard was, on the church’s account, a Navy intelligence officer at some point during his service career.22 Bara further judged that Hubbard was residing in the area and still an active naval officer while befriending Parsons and infiltrating the OTO,23 that he would have made an ideal agent for such an infiltration,24 and that the OTO’s Pasadena headquarters was damaged for years by his actions,25 never fully recovering from the harm done to Parsons.26
Bara cited Navy documents showing Hubbard was assigned to intelligence duties in 1941-07,27 and that he remained in the Navy reserves until 1950-10.28 Hubbard was officially listed as a patient at Oak Knoll Naval Hospital in San Francisco until 1945-12.29 Dark Mission states that a telegram from Hubbard to the Navy dated 1945-10-13 places him in Hollywood, near Parsons and the OTO lodge in Pasadena,30 and that minutes from a Federation of American Scientists meeting on 1945-11-15 record both Hubbard and Parsons in attendance.31 Hubbard had an intelligence background32 and attended one of the first university courses on nuclear physics ever taught in the United States.33 Richard C. Hoagland has said he considers it plausible that Hubbard was an Office of Naval Intelligence informant sent to infiltrate and destabilise the OTO and the Federation of American Scientists, after reviewing documentation supplied by the Church of Scientology,34 and now holds that the weight of the evidence supports the church’s version of events over the less flattering alternative account.35
Jacques Vallée has linked Parsons and Hubbard to the same process of extraterrestrial-superiority belief.36 Parsons collaborated with Crowley and Hubbard while both launching rockets and engaging in provocative rituals in the Los Angeles desert.37 In 2003-03, Bill Chalker said that he and Diane Harrison were contacted by an overseas source who suggested the Gundiah case had more to do with a misguided secret Scientology mission to find a buried spaceship, as described in the Mission Earth science fiction series by Scientology’s founder, L. Ron Hubbard.38 Harrison has noted that Hubbard lived out his last years on a remote US property he called Whispering Winds - sharing its name with the Gundiah property - which he had described as a quiet place, a perfect place to hide.39