"High levels of a psychiatric drug" found during L. Ron Hubbard's autopsy

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

http://slate.msn.com/id/2122835/

He and his followers developed a reputation for intimidating critics and church defectors. An official inquiry in Australia concluded that Scientology is "evil" and "a serious threat to the community, medically, morally and socially; and its adherents sadly deluded and often medically ill." In 1963, federal agents, suspicious that Hubbard's therapy might pose a health risk, raided the church's Washington, D.C., branch. The IRS concluded soon after that Hubbard was skimming millions of dollars from church funds and revoked Scientology's tax-exempt status. (The church won back that status in 1993 after a long, fierce campaign; several European countries still don't recognize Scientology as a religion.) In 1967, Hubbard fled to the high seas for most of the next eight years. During this period he dreamed up the "Sea Org," a special branch of Scientology whose members wear sharp blue naval uniforms and sign contracts pledging their service for 1 billion years.

Hubbard finally returned to land in 1975, first to Washington, D.C., and then to the California desert. Lying low, Hubbard was doted on by a special group of teenage "messengers" who pulled on his socks and followed him with ashtrays when he smoked. He developed Howard Hughes-like eccentricities, flying into rages if he smelled detergent in his clothes, which caused the terrified messengers to rinse his laundry in multiple water buckets.

Meanwhile, the church's ongoing paranoia and vindictiveness culminated in a shockingly elaborate operation, which Hubbard dubbed "Snow White," to spy on and burglarize multiple federal offices, including the IRS and the Justice Department, with the aim of stealing and destroying government documents about Scientology. The Scientologists even planted moles in some federal offices. In 1983, 11 church leaders, including Hubbard's wife, were convicted and sentenced to prison for the conspiracy. Though Hubbard was named as a co-conspirator, he was never indicted.

By that time, in any case, he had gone into hiding. On or around Jan. 17, 1986, Hubbard suffered a catastrophic stroke on a secluded ranch near Big Sur, Calif. A week later he was dead. Scientology attorneys arrived to recover his body, which they sought to have cremated immediately. They were blocked by a county coroner, who, according to Scientology critics, did an autopsy that revealed high levels of a psychiatric drug. That would seem like an embarrassment given the church's hostility to such medications (witness Tom Cruise's recent feud with Brooke Shields), but it didn't stop the church from summoning thousands of followers to the Hollywood Palladium days after Hubbard's death. There they were told that Hubbard "willingly discarded the body after it was no longer useful to him," and that this signified "his ultimate success: the conquest of life that he embarked upon half a century ago." Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that Hubbard's ultimate success lay in convincing millions of people he was something other than a nut.

[blondeatlast]

1. That MIGHT explain the novels... nt

[On the Road]

2. Are They Saying He Was High or That He Committed Suicide?

There's nothing like psychotropic drugs to make you believe your own delusions.

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

3. If you read the books "Bare Faced Messiah" or "A Piece Of Blue Sky"...

...Hubbard spent AT LEAST the last year of his life drugged out of his MIND, like a helpless child, just G-O-N-E. His teeth were rotting out of his head, he was falling apart, he was a mess.

Both books can be read in their entirety on the Web. Operation Clambake has links to them.

http://www.xenu.net/

[arwalden]

4. Does DU Have Any Scientologists?

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

6. I've never seen anyone identify themselves as one...

There are a few people who get pretty vocal in response to Tom Cruise / Scientology threads, but I think that putting the information out there...such as L. Ron attempting to impregnate the Whore of Babylon with the seed of the AntiChrist...kind of speaks for itself.

It's not like I'm saying people SHOULD or SHOULDN'T sign up and start writing checks. I don;t really care about what people do with their time or money. It's their business, not mine. If they think Tom Cruise has all the answers, God bless 'em.



:toast:

[Generic Other]

5. a special branch of Scientology whose members wear sharp blue naval unifor

The Michael Jackson branch?