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See also [[L. Ron Hubbard controversy]].

'''Lafayette Ronald Hubbard''' ([[March 13]], [[1911]] - [[January 24]], [[1986]]), better known as '''L. Ron Hubbard'''<ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dziK04-9qqQ Youtube.com Hubbard video]</ref>, or '''Ron''' to his friends, was a prolific [[United States|American]] writer of fiction in many genres; romance, [[science fiction]], religious philosophy, technical, educational and management texts, and miscellaneous reports, [[essay]]s and [[poetry]].  In addition he was a widely traveled explorer and adventurer.  But he is most widely known for founding the [[Church of Scientology]].  In doing so, he introduced a new [[datum]] into man's conciousness and philosophy.  Namely, an individual person may have two situations:<br /> #1 They know a piece of information, for example they have read about how to ride a bicycle.<br />#2 They understand what they know, for example, they can ride a bicycle.<br />Mr. Hubbard's [[Scientology]] and his earlier [[Dianetics]] is based on this difference.

==Biography==

Hubbard was born in [[Tilden]], [[Nebraska]]. During the 1920s, he traveled twice to the Far East to visit his parents during his father's posting to the [[United States Navy]] base on the island of [[Guam]]. He attended [[George Washington University]] in [[Washington, DC]] between 1930-32 to study [[civil engineering]] but left before the end of his final year. He authored numerous [[pulp magazine]] stories and novellas during the 1930s. They sold well, earning Hubbard a place in the hall of fame of the [[golden age of science fiction]]. He wrote primarily in the [[science fiction]] and [[fantasy fiction]] genres, though he also authored several [[westerns]] and romances. One of his fictional stories was ''[[Final Blackout]]'', a controversial story about a war-ravaged Europe, another, ''[[Fear (novel)|Fear]]'', was a psychological horror story.

Hubbard joined the [[United States Navy]] in June 1941 as an officer. After the Japanese attack on [[Pearl Harbor]], [[Hawaii]], in December 1941, he was ordered to [[Australia]]. He subsequently commanded the harbor protection vessel USS YP-422 (based in [[Boston]], [[Massachusetts]]) and the subchaser [[USS PC-815]] (based in [[Astoria]], [[Oregon]]). He was relieved of command of both vessels, in the latter case after shelling a [[Mexican]] island off [[Baja California]]. Most of Hubbard's wartime service was spent ashore in the continental United States. He was mustered out of the active service list in late 1945 and resigned his commission in 1950.

In June 1950, Hubbard published a book describing his created self-improvement technique, [[Dianetics]].  March of 1952 was when Hubbard introduced his philosophically new idea that understood knowledge is a different situation for an individual than is knowledge in recall.  He did that in a lecture that introduced the philosophy which he called [[Scientology]]. The following December, he founded the first [[Church of Scientology]] in [[Camden, New Jersey]], declaring it to be an applied religious philosophy. He moved to [[England]] and during the remainder of the 1950s he oversaw the worldwide development of the philosophy and the Church from an office in [[London]]. In 1959, he bought Saint Hill Manor, an extensive manor house and grounds near [[Sussex]] in East Grinstead, [[England]].  It became the worldwide headquarters of the Church for some years.

In 1967, Hubbard appointed himself [[Commodore rank|Commodore]] of a small fleet of Scientologist-crewed ships which spent the next eight years cruising the [[Mediterranean Sea]]. He returned to the United States in the mid-1970s and lived for a while in [[Florida]].

In about 1979 he moved to a ranch he had purchased on O'Donovan Road in [[Creston, California]], where he continued, to develop the philosophy, Scientology, and the Church which disseminates it.  The Church of Scientology announced his death in 1986, stating Hubbard had causatively departed his body to do "higher level spiritual research," unencumbered from the confines of his mortal body. He did not appear in public after 1981.

During the 1980s, Hubbard wrote a 10 volume science book, ''[[Battlefield Earth]]''.  In [[2000]], Hubbard's ''[[Battlefield Earth]]'' was adapted as a screen play and starred [[Barry Pepper]] and [[John Travolta]] as the hero and villain respectively.  Upon his death, he willed all of his copyrights and properties to the Church of Scientology.

==Partial bibliography==

===Fiction===

*''Fear''
*''Final Blackout''
*''Buckskin Brigades''
*''Ole Doc Methuselah''
*''Typewriter in the Sky''
*''Slaves and Masters of Sleep''
*''The Kingslayer''
*''[[Battlefield Earth]]''
*''[[Mission Earth]]'' series: 1) ''The Invaders Plan''; 2) ''Black Genesis''; 3) ''The Enemy Within''; 4) ''An Alien Affair''; 5) ''Fortune of Fear''; 6) ''Death Quest''; 7) ''Voyage of Vengeance''; 8) ''Disaster''; 9) ''Villainy Victorious''; 10) ''The Doomed Planet''

===Dianetics and Scientology===

*''[[Dianetics]]: The Modern Science of Mental Health''
*''Science of Survival: Prediction of Human Behavior''
*''Dianetics 55!''
*''[[Scientology]]: The Fundamentals of Thought''
*''Scientology: A New Slant on Life''
*''Self Analysis''
*''All About Radiation''
*''Have You Lived Before This Life?''
*''Scientology: A History of Man''
*''Clear Body, Clear Mind: The Effective Purification Program''
*''Child Dianetics''
*''Speaking From Experience : Illustrated Solutions to the Business Problems You Face Everyday''
*''How to Live though an Executive''
*''Purification: An Illustrated Answer to Drugs''
*''Scientology 8-8008''
*''Handbook for Preclears''
*''The Volunteer Minister's Handbook''
*''Introduction to Scientology Ethics''

==Unofficial Biographies==

*''L. Ron Hubbard: Messiah or Madman?'' by Brent Corydon and L. Ron Hubbard Jr.
*''A Piece of Blue Sky'' by Jon Atack
*''Bare-Faced Messiah'' by Russell Miller
*''Ron the War Hero'' by Chris Owen

==External links==
<references/>
*[http://www.lronhubbard.org/lrhhome.html Official L. Ron Hubbard biography site, from the Church of Scientology]
*[http://www.uni-marburg.de/religionswissenschaft/journal/mjr/frenschkowski.html Annotated bibliography of literature by and about L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology, by Marco Frenschkowski]
*[http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/guides/guide-display/-/1K7XTPTMT8OQG/ref=cm_bg_guides/104-3698778-4357553 Summary of Hubbard's writing career, hosted on Amazon.com]
*[http://dmoz.org/Society/Religion_and_Spirituality/Scientology/Hubbard,_L._Ron Websites about L. Ron Hubbard (from the Open Directory)]


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====References====
<protect>* Adapted from the [[Wikipedia]] article, "L._Ron_Hubbard" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L._Ron_Hubbard http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L._Ron_Hubbard], used under the [[GNU Free Documentation License]]</protect>