$cientology's *FIRST* clinic

At the time, in the very beginning, the whole Scientology thing attracted my grandmother (who was a doyenne in the Arts world during the 30s) because it was providing a viable alternative to expensive Freudian / Jungian based psychology. It was meant to help the common man. This appealed enormously to her and it was THIS which was the one of the *founding* premises of his FIRST official clinic.

My grandmother helped Ron start up in LA way back when. She told me that she left a few years later in utter disgust at how the whole operation had moved away from its founding principles (at least as she had perceived these at that time) and had instead been refocussed to accomodate Ron's increasingly rapacious GREED. Hence of course the vast range of courses which were developed swiftly and thus the attainment of ALL CLEAR status becomes more expensive and lucrative to Ron personally.

I've heard that he has not been seen in public for years. This would make sense as he must be a VERY, *VERY* old man by now! 90s? Is he indeed still alive? Has anybody got INDEPENDENT proof of this?

My grandmother against my mother's specific instructions applied some principles drawn from Scientology (which were in turn drawn from folk medical practises worldwide -- including the use of Peyote as a medicinal application!!!) to me one day after a pan of HOT fat had spilled all over my arm. It worked. The next day there was not even the slightest blister. For *hours* she made me recite as clearly as possible exactly 100 times in vivid detail the circum- stances of the accident. So let's wrap up this psycho-suggestive healing process in some fancy mumbo jumbo which sounds a bit $cientific and call it a 'religion'. That sounds a good idea. Gee. Maybe we should write some shit sci fi as well with the money we made because our "devotees" will be certain to buy a copy anyway, right?

My mother was always of the view that Ron was like a greasy little 2nd hand car dealer and she HATED him coming to the house (which he did fairly often in the early days).

So ... the promise of cheap pyschiatric treatment for the 'common man' which was made in the beginning was betrayed by what -- L. Ron Hubbard's own avariciousness. Perhaps he could take one of his own courses for this problem? The telltale sign as far as my grandmother was concerned was that he of course supported the swift development of more and more "courses" which acted ultimately as simply a growing array of barriers to achieving that semi sacrosanct status of becoming an "All Clear". Suddenly -- surprise, surprise -- it wasn't targetted at the "common man" anymore ... because he couldn't afford the courses! -- Dave