Verisoph story dossier
The strange documented nexus where rocket science met the occult: Jack Parsons, co-founder of JPL and a Thelemite, his Babalon Working with L. Ron Hubbard, and Hubbard's founding of Dianetics and the Church of Scientology.
The strange documented nexus where rocket science met the occult: Jack Parsons, co-founder of JPL and a Thelemite, his Babalon Working with L. Ron Hubbard, and Hubbard's founding of Dianetics and the Church of Scientology.
Through the 1930s Hubbard wrote prolifically for pulp magazines, turning out adventure, western and science fiction stories. The output made him a fast and confident writer well before he devised Dianetics.
Self-taught chemist Jack Parsons and his friend Ed Forman teamed up with graduate student Frank Malina under Theodore von Karman at Caltech's Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory. Their amateur experiments formed the nucleus of what became the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Parsons and his colleagues, nicknamed the Suicide Squad, conducted their first static rocket motor tests in the Arroyo Seco canyon near Pasadena. JPL treats this experiment as the moment of its founding.
Hubbard served as a naval officer during the war, later greatly embellishing his wartime record. His actual service was modest and marked by disputed command incidents.
Parsons developed solid propellants for JATO units that gave overloaded aircraft extra thrust on takeoff. The successful flight tests proved the military value of the Caltech group's work.
Parsons joined the Agape Lodge, the California branch of Aleister Crowley's occult order the Ordo Templi Orientis. He embraced Crowley's religion of Thelema and its motto, Do what thou wilt.
Parsons, Malina, Forman, von Karman and others formed Aerojet to manufacture rocket engines for the military. The company grew into a major American propulsion firm.
Parsons took over leadership of the Agape Lodge of the OTO after Wilfred Talbot Smith stepped aside. He ran its rituals from his home on South Orange Grove Avenue.
Parsons formulated a stable castable propellant using asphalt and potassium perchlorate, known as GALCIT 53. The breakthrough pointed toward the composite solid fuels later used in large rockets and missiles.
The Army-funded Caltech rocket group was formally reorganized as the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Parsons was one of its founding members before later leaving the field.
Parsons rented rooms in his large house to artists, writers and fellow occultists, creating a countercultural household known as the Parsonage. It became a hub for Thelemites and science fiction figures in wartime Pasadena.
Parsons sold his Aerojet shares and lost his central role in the field he had helped create. He supported himself with explosives and chemistry consulting work.
Navy officer and pulp writer L. Ron Hubbard came to live at Parsons's house after the war. The two men became close friends and collaborators in Parsons's magical work.
Parsons carried out a series of Thelemic sex magic rituals meant to invoke a goddess he called Babalon and produce a magical child. Hubbard took part as his scribe and psychic seer during the ceremonies.
Artist Marjorie Cameron appeared at the Parsonage during the ritual period, and Parsons believed she was the elemental woman he had summoned. She became his partner and later his wife.
Parsons, Hubbard and Sara Northrup formed a company called Allied Enterprises to buy and resell yachts. Hubbard took much of Parsons's money and Northrup, whom he soon married, and a legal fight followed that cost Parsons most of his savings.
Hubbard used the Allied Enterprises partnership to take Parsons's money and buy boats, then departed with Sara Northrup. Parsons pursued him legally and recovered only a fraction of his losses.
Parsons's occult activities and left-leaning associations drew FBI attention and cost him his government security clearance. The setback pushed him further out of mainstream rocket work.
Hubbard's book introduced Dianetics, a self-help method claiming to erase harmful mental images called engrams through a process he named auditing. It became a bestseller and launched a national movement.
Hubbard set up foundations to spread Dianetics, but they were soon beset by financial trouble and disputes. Their failure led Hubbard to recast his ideas as a religion.
Parsons was killed at age 37 when volatile chemicals detonated in his home lab. His mother died by suicide the same day, and his death has been ruled an accident by investigators while remaining the subject of speculation.
Over years Hubbard built out Scientology's core practices, including auditing sessions guided by a device called the E-meter and a graded ladder of advanced Operating Thetan levels. Adherents paid rising fees to progress up the levels.
Hubbard reframed his Dianetics teachings as a religion and established the first Church of Scientology. Presenting the work as a faith gave it new legal and financial footing.
Hubbard issued policy declaring that declared enemies of the church could be tricked, sued, lied to or destroyed. The term Fair Game was later canceled on paper while the practices continued.
Scientology adopted disconnection, requiring members to sever ties with anyone labeled a suppressive person, including family. The policy has divided many families of members.
Hubbard's wife Mary Sue headed a new intelligence and legal wing called the Guardian's Office. It later ran the criminal infiltration campaign against the US government.
Hubbard created the Sea Org, an elite corps of staff who signed symbolic billion-year commitments and ran the church from a small fleet of ships. It became the top administrative tier of Scientology.
The church founded the Celebrity Centre to attract and serve actors, musicians and other prominent people. Famous members became a central part of Scientology's public image.
The International Astronomical Union named a crater on the far side of the Moon after Jack Parsons. The tribute recognized his pioneering role in rocket propulsion.
Under Operation Snow White, Scientology agents infiltrated the IRS, the Justice Department and other bodies to steal and purge unfavorable records. It became one of the largest known infiltrations of the US government.
After Paulette Cooper wrote a critical book, church operatives ran a plan called Operation Freakout to frame her for crimes and drive her to silence or institutionalization. The scheme surfaced in the FBI's Snow White evidence.
More than a hundred FBI agents raided Scientology premises in Los Angeles and Washington and seized documents. The evidence exposed the Snow White conspiracy.
Mary Sue Hubbard and ten other senior Scientologists were convicted and imprisoned for the conspiracy to infiltrate and burglarize government agencies. The case remains a documented criminal conspiracy by the church.
After the Operation Snow White prosecutions named him an unindicted co-conspirator, Hubbard withdrew from public life. He spent his final years in hiding and was rarely seen.
Litigation brought Hubbard's secret upper-level teachings into the public record, including the story of a galactic ruler named Xenu. The church had guarded the material as confidential scripture.
Hubbard died at a secluded California ranch at age 74. The church announced he had voluntarily left his body to continue his work on another plane.
After Hubbard's death, David Miscavige emerged as the church's dominant figure and consolidated power as head of the Religious Technology Center. He has led Scientology ever since.
A Time magazine cover story described Scientology as a ruthless global money-making enterprise. The church sued for libel and lost, and the article shaped public criticism for years.
After decades of litigation and conflict, the IRS recognized Scientology entities as tax-exempt religious organizations. The settlement ended a long and bitter battle with the US tax authorities.
McPherson died of a pulmonary embolism after being held for weeks under a Scientology isolation practice called the Introspection Rundown following a mental breakdown. Her death became a rallying point for critics.
Florida prosecutors indicted the church's Flag Service Organization on felony charges of abusing or neglecting a disabled adult and practicing medicine without a license. The charges were dropped in 2000 after the cause of death was reclassified.
Lisa McPherson's family settled its civil suit against the church on undisclosed terms. The long case kept the circumstances of her death in the public eye.
In a series called The Truth Rundown, former senior executives accused David Miscavige of physically abusing staff and described a punitive confinement known as the Hole. The church denied the accounts.
Journalist Lawrence Wright's book Going Clear traced Scientology's history and detailed allegations of abuse, coercion and celebrity entanglement. It became one of the most influential critical accounts of the church.
Former members have continued to sue the church over harassment, forced labor claims and disconnection, while Scientology has pressed to move disputes into internal religious arbitration. The legal battles remain active.
Alex Gibney's film adaptation of Going Clear reached a mass television audience with former members describing life inside the church. It renewed public scrutiny of Scientology's practices.
Former member and actress Leah Remini hosted a television series featuring ex-Scientologists recounting disconnection, harassment and abuse. The show ran for three seasons and drew wide attention to defectors' accounts.