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 Author,
philosopher, humanitarian—L. Ron Hubbard is one of the
most acclaimed figures of the modern age. His works have inspired
millions, primarily because they provide the answers to the
most profound questions of human existence—and do so
in ways all people can understand.
As Ron said, “One doesn't learn about
life sitting in an ivory tower, thinking about it. One learns
about life by being part of it.” And that is how he lived.
His quest began at a very early age. By
the time he was eight years old, he was already well on his
way to being a seasoned traveler and his adventures included
then rare voyages to China, Japan and other points in the
Orient and South Pacific. In all, he traversed a quarter of
a million miles by the age of nineteen. In the course of his
travels he became closely acquainted with twenty-one different
races and cultures in all parts of the world.
In the fall of 1930, Ron pursued studies
of mathematics and engineering at George Washington University,
attending one of the first American classes on nuclear physics.
Examination of these subjects brought him to the realization
that neither the East nor the West contained the full answer
to the problems of existence, despite all of mankind's advances
in the physical sciences. He observed the mental "technologies"
which did exist—psychology and psychiatry—to be
barbaric, false subjects and no more workable than the inhuman
methods of primitive witch doctors. Ron decided to shoulder
the responsibility of filling the gap, knowing man needed
to step far beyond the materialistic world in which he was
embroiled.
Much of his early research was financed
by his career as a fiction writer. He became one of the most
highly demanded authors of the  golden
age of popular adventure and science fiction writing during
the '30s and '40s—interrupted only by his service in
the U.S. Navy during World War II.
Partially disabled at the end of the war
and recuperating in Oak Knoll Naval Hospital in Oakland, California,
Ron applied what he had discovered as a result of his research
into the mind to not only recover fully from his own injuries
but also to help others to regain the health they lost through
the ravages of war. He engaged in a study of the endocrine
system and the effect of the mind on the body's ability to
absorb and use nutrients which resulted in the brand-new discovery
that structure does not monitor function, as medicine believed,
but the reverse was true: function (or life) monitors structure.
In 1947, Ron detailed his discoveries in
a manuscript which circulated amongst his friends, who copied
it and passed it on to others. (This manuscript was formally
published in 1951 as Dianetics: The Original Thesis and later
republished as The Dynamics of Life.) Floods of inquiries
were generated by this material; in response, Ron wrote a
comprehensive text on the subject—Dianetics:
The Modern Science of Mental Health.
Published on May 9, 1950, Dianetics:
The Modern Science of Mental Health made Ron's revolutionary
ideas broadly available for the first time. Public interest
spread like wildfire and the book shot to the top of the New
York Times bestseller list and remained there week after
week. More than 750 Dianetics study groups sprang up coast
to coast within a few months of its publication, while newspaper
headlines proclaimed: "Dianetics Takes U.S. by Storm."
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