Sarah-Jane Adams

Before we begin today's episode, we would like to start by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we're recording, the Gadigal people, and pay our respects to Elders past and present.

Welcome to Big Talk.

We revisit the most shocking headlines of the past that have shaped the world we know today.

And in this episode, we're looking at Scientology.

Should we first do a bit of a recap?

Though history would later prove these to be exaggerations of his life, one thing was true.

From a young age, Hubbard had a penchant for creating far-flung tales.

This ability would later help him in many areas of his life, but especially so in his career as a writer.

Dropping out of a nuclear physics degree in university, within only a few short years, Hubbard had published hundreds of short stories and novels, becoming a generally well-received writer.

Fucking hell, that is a crazy review.

However, Hubbard held aspirations of joining the Navy like his father, and after three attempts and one forged letter, he was in, leaving his writing career behind.

Deserting his wife and children in Washington, Hubbard chose to stay in California.

In the city of celebrity, he became obsessed with the occultist Alistair Crowley and spent a year expanding on Crowley's work around sex magic rituals.

He attempted to bring about an antichrist baby, totally normal, failed, and then later was involved in an elaborate boat heist.

Through Dianetics, Hubbard proposed a new form of therapy.

He stated that unpleasant memories were stored in the body as engrams and that to work through them, you needed to undergo a form of talk therapy, which he called auditing.

But Hubbard knew his time wasn't over.

Wanting to recreate the success of Dianetics, he invented Scientology, a theory of psychology that expanded upon Dianetics but also included a new concept.

This concept was called Operating Thetan.

Your mum, remember how's it, your mum still wears it to this day, you know?